An Unexpected Assignment
by zatl
Summary: What happens when our favorite team gets sent off to therapy? This is just a little idea I couldn't help but put onto paper. It's my first fic, so be nice. Major TIVA plus a little McAbby and Jibbs. Rated T just to be safe. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: THIS IS MY FIRST FIC. BE NICE. READ AND REVIEW!**

**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING!! ALTHOUGH I WISH I DID....**

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CHAPTER 1: Therapy

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo looked up as the elevator dinged and opened, revealing a very distracted looking Mossad officer. He flashed her his famous 'DiNozzo' grin as she walked past, but it went unnoticed. He frowned slightly and went about trying to read her face and figure out what was bothering her.

"Good Morning Zee-vah. Wonderful friday, isn't it." He grinned, failing yet again to gain her attention. He waited a moment, then tried again. "I know our traditions may be slightly different, but here in America it's considered rude to ignore a greeting from a coworker."

"Lucky for you it is also considered rude to murder your coworkers or you would already be dead." She snapped.

He rolled his eyes, but was secretly glad he got a response out of her . "Well somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Tony couldn't help but notice how cute she looked as her brow furrowed. "What do my sleeping habits have to do with me murdering you, Tony?"

Laughing he replied, "It's just an expression Zee-vah. It basically means your grumpy." He noticed how her lips twitched when he dragged out her name. He wondered what she would do to him if she knew he did this because he loved to say her name, so he dragged it out sometimes to make it last longer.

"I am not 'grumpy'!" She defended. He raised an eyebrow and just looked at her. "I am merely annoyed and I am actually surprised that you are not also." Now it was his turn to furrow his brow. She smiled. "Ah... I can see you have not checked your e-mail recently."

Tony's smile slipped. "No. I haven't... why...?"

McGee chose this moment to enter the room, a look of horror and helplessness on his face. "Hey guys." He greeted them with a depressed tone. "I can't believe they're making us do this can you!? I mean 'Team Therapy'!? How is that supposed to help anything around here?"

Shock crossed Tony's face. "Therapy!!!! You're kidding me... we are going to have to sit in a small room with some shrink and spill out all our secrets to a complete stranger! This is going to be....." Then he paused. A grin started to spread slowly across his face. He stood up and slowly ambled over to where Ziva was sitting. He sat down on the desk in front of her. "So that's why you are in such a bad mood. What is it that the ninja doesn't want us to know about her personal life.... or maybe not a what but a who?"

Ziva stood up and walked around the desk to stand within inches of where Tony was sitting. He looked down at her, obviously pleased with the clossness. She glared at him. Then, without warning she grabbed his wrist and flipped him over so that he was pinned against the top of her desk, with her leaning over him. "You know Tony," she hissed in his ear, "there is a very good reason I do not like to talk about my personal life with you.

"And what would that be." He asked in a strained voice, in pain because of the position in which Ziva had him.

"Because, Tony, then it wouldn't be personal." Gibbs chose this moment to enter the room, coffee in hand. Ziva quickly stepped away from Tony and walked back around her desk and sat down in her chair. Tony stood up and stretched out his arm groaning.

"You know boss, you could make my life a lot easier by telling her not to do that." He said.

"I know that," Gibbs replied head slapping him, "But most of the time you deserve it." Ziva smirked and Tony, who made a face back. Gibbs ignored them, continuing to speak. "I'm assuming you all got the news about the Team Therapist we will all be seeing... And don't even think about complaining to me about it. This defiantly wasn't my idea."

"Ok." Ziva agreed standing up. "Then who do I complain to?" Tony tried to pass off a laugh as a sneeze.

"Let me rephrase. We will ALL be doing this without complaints to ANYONE. This was director Shepard's idea, not mine. She says he's been noticing an unusual amount of bickering lately, and wants us to work out our problems."

McGee looked terrified. "And she thinks THERAPY is the best way to settle this."

"Don't look at it as 'therapy'... more like... hmm, what did Jenny say, oh yeah, team bonding."

"Team bonding my ass!" said Tony, still smiling. "Come on guys, why do you all look so worried. This is going to be FUN!" The rest of the team just glared at him. "OK never mind. Maybe a better word choice would be... enlightening ." He said as a jumble of other phrases such as 'pointless' and 'embarrassing' and 'invasion of privacy' came from the other members of the team.

Gibbs decided the conversation was getting old, and ended it. "The therapy sessions are going to take place at some camp called 'Heartland', you will be e-mailed directions and specific details about the camp over the weekend. I want any paper work finished by the end of the day. I don't want to put up with complaints from our replacements about having to do any crap you leave them with."

"Replacements?" Tony asked curiously.

"Yeah DiNozzo." Gibbs replied annoyed. "Someone is going to have to do our jobs for a week."

"Right." Tony said, now realizing the obvious as Gibbs exited the room, leaving them to do their work.

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The morning was passing by slowly. The NCIS team remained relatively silent trying to catch up on paperwork, until Tony decided to break the silence with a complaint. "Ahggg! This is so BORING!!!"

"Thank you for stating the obvious Tony, but please be quiet, as I do need to concentrate." Ziva said, clearly annoyed.

Tony smirked and walked over to her desk for the second time that day, this time walking around to where she was sitting. He put his arms on either side of her on her desk and leaned into her, whispering in her ear, "Do I distract you, Zee-vah?"

"No Tony, not at all. And if you still want full function of both your arms next week, you should back off." She replied in an overly sweet voice.

He leaned in even closer, brushing his lips against her ear, "I don't think you would actually hurt me, would you, Ziva?"

Ziva squinted her eyes and smiled mischievously. Tony didn't know how it happened, but he found himself pinned against the cabinets behind Ziva's desk, her body pressed up against his. She leaned up, putting her face close to his. "Do you actually want to test that theory, Tony. Because I think I could hurt you very easily." she threatened.

Tony smiled down at her, "Do you know what, I still have reports to file, so I'm going to go... do that." Ziva just laughed. Completely aware of how much she intimidated him.

McGee had been watching the whole encounter from his desk and was about to comment on their flirting, but thought it was a better idea not to. He was vaguely aware of the feelings Tony and Ziva had for each other, but was not dumb enough to point it out. He knew they would just both deny it, and he didn't want to to put up with Tony for the rest of the day if he did mention anything.

Tony walked back to his desk and noticed McGee looking at him. He glared at him, "What are you looking at McGeek?"

McGee blushed and looked quickly back down at his desk. "Nothing," he said quickly. "So what do the two of you think of this therapy thing.?"

"I am not totally against it." Said Tony, who honestly just wanted to know more about Ziva's mysterious past. He glanced over at her and grinned at the determined look on her face. He could tell already her conversations with the shrink weren't going to be very wordy. He chuckled at the thought of Ziva's face during the sessions, causing Ziva to look up and glare at him.

"What are you laughing at."

He thought about lying, but decided it was not a good idea to lie to the human lie detector. "Just trying to imagine your first conversation with the shrink."

McGee laughed, "What conversation? After their first few seconds, we'll probably walk in and find him dead on the floor." Tony joined his laughter. They were both saved from Ziva's wrath when the elevator dinged and Abby ran in squealing with excitement.

"Oh my gosh! I am like, so excited. A whole week alone with my favorite team ever. This is going to be so much fun..." She continued on like this for a good two or three minutes until Ziva finally interrupted.

"Thank you Abby. We can all see you are excited, but we have to finish this paperwork before we leave tonight, or Gibbs will have our... donkey's, yes?"

"I think you mean asses Ziva," Tony said smiling, "and I don't mind Abby's mindless banter. It is relaxing. Please continue, Abs."

"Tony!" Abby reprimanded. "Only Gibbs can call be Abs. And I need to be getting back down to my lab anyway. I am busy too, you know. Well, I guess I will be seeing you all later. Have fun with the paperwork." She said skipping back to the elevator smiling, leaving the team alone again.

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The rest of the day passed without much incident. Tony tried to start a paper war with Ziva, but she ignored him, knowing the lack of response would annoy him more than any actual response would.

By 1630, they had all finished what they needed to do and went home with nervous thoughts of what was in store for them the next week. This was going to be interesting.

**Well, there you go, hope you liked it. They probably won't get to the camp until chapter three or four, I don't want to rush this. Im almost finished with the next chapter and should have it up by tomorrow.**

**Oh, and by the way: Please Review. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!!**

**ANY WAY. HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO LOVE MY STORY. THIS IS JUST A CHAPTER TO LET YOU INTO THE HEADS OF THE CHARACTERS,SO IT'S KINDA BORING. IT WAS HARD TO WRITE, SINCE YOU DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT THE CHARACTERS ARE THINKING. SORRY IF I MESSED UP ANY OF THEM.**

**THERE ARE SOME FUNNY PARTS COMING VERY SOON. ENJOY.**

**DISCLAIMER: SADLY I STILL DO NOT OWN NCIS OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS. **

**CHAPTER 2: Thoughts**

Ziva woke up early on Sunday morning, like she always did, and prepared to go on her morning run. She started out the door at exactly 530 and spent her run dreading what she was going to have to put up with for the next week. She did not like revealing anything about her personal life. Mossad had taught her not to show any emotion, and talking to the therapist was likely to bring up some painful memories.

She was also worried about how her team would react to a lot of what she would probably be forced to say. Her past was not exactly a pleasant story and she did not like revisiting it.

At work Tony would occasionally catch her reminiscing, and was always trying to get her to open up the, but she knew that some secrets are better left untold, so she always avoided the subject. Tony's persistence annoyed her sometimes. She knew he was just trying to be a good partner and friend, but he should understand her personal life was her business, and leave her alone about it. He was not her boyfriend, and did not need to know everything about her.

Her heart jolted at that word. But before she could allow herself to think of why she had that reaction she used a skill she learned from being in Mossad for so long and repressed all feeling until she got herself focused on her original dilemma.

Feelings. She didn't know what was going to come of this weekend. What was going to happen, or what feelings were going to be revealed. As she finished her run she decided she wouldn't worry about any of that when she had, the next day. As she started her day she wondered if the rest of her team was thinking about the impending weekend just as much as she was.

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Tony pulled his pillow over his head as light streamed in through his window. He groaned. Is it morning already? he thought as he slowly dragged himself out of bed. It had been a late night. He had gone to a bar after work and accidently caught the attention of a gorgeous blonde who he spent hours trying to get rid of. He didn't like to hurt her feeling, but women just didn't have the same appeal to him after Jeanne. Well, except for Ziva. He had always wanted to know what went on through her head, but especially recently.

He couldn't be sure of anything around Ziva anymore, he never could. The only thing he was sure of was that he had feelings for her. Because of stupid rule number twelve, he had never tried to figure out exactly what these feelings were, but he knew there was something.

There had always been a sort of connection between them, from the moment they met. He laughed as he recalled their meeting. The first thing she had ever said to him was "Having phone sex?" Since then they were always flirting and teasing each other, but something had changed when Jeanne left. Ziva had been there for him to help him stay together. Although he would never admit it, just knowing she was there for him had helped him get back on his feet and start living his life again. Ziva had always been there for him and he couldn't help but think that this was because she thought of him as more than a partner. He certainly hoped so.

Then his thoughts drifted towards the following week. Maybe, just maybe he would establish how he felt for Ziva as she would be forced to be open up to him, and the rest of the team. Although this thought scared him a little, he really wanted to get to know her better.... No he scolded himself, don't think like that. She is your partner, plus Gibbs would never allow it. To keep his mind off Ziva, he began to come up with ways to make McGee uncomfortable.

As the day progressed all he could think was that this was going to be a fun and entertaining week.

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McGee sat bent over his cereal deep in thought over what was going to be in store for him next week. He knew embarrassing questions were going to be asked because he had been to a therapist once when he was little. He shuttered at the memory. That had NOT been the best experience of his life. Although he didn't have any terrible secrets he wanted out, he still did not want to go into details about his personal life.

He contemplated for a moment some of the questions he was likely to be asked, and shuttered again. Tony would never leave him alone by the time this week was over. He would never get another moments peace.

He yauned and stretched in his chair finally deciding it would be better to not think about anything until he had to, until I single word popped into his head practically giving him a panik attack. Abby.

He had never quite gotten over his feelings for her and the therapist was sure to notice something about that. Now he was really worried. He did not want to have to talk about his feelings for her around the rest of the team. Especially Gibbs.

He groaned as he got up to speand the rest of his day doing his favorite past time. Writing. The one thing that was sure to distract him from his worries. But this didn't help either as another wave of panic swepted over him. He would most likely also have to discuss his book and how his character related to his coworkers. This was going to be a long week.

He finally distracted him from his negative thoughts with thoughts of Abby and what it would be like if he could finally let loose and show his feelings for her. He smiled at the thought, the horrors of next week now completely lost on him.

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Abby jumped out of the bed in the morning, super excited about the following week. She ran to her closet and began making the difficult decision of what she would bring with her for what she was sure would be the best week of her life.

She walked around her room opening drawers and closets, throwing pssibilities of outfits onto the bed and around the room. She had to look perfect this weekend, and the only way she could pull that off was if she was prepared. She finally had practically cleared her closet of clothes and shoes; so she grabbed a huge suitcase, opened it and began loading it up with her favorite outfits and accessories.

One of the reasons she wanted to look great this weeks was she would finally get to speand some non-work related time with McGee. Something she knew they both needed. But, not one to dwell on it, she quickly packed up her things and smiled as she imagined the adventures that were going to be in store for team Gibbs over the next week. This was going to be intersting, she was sure.

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Gibbs sipped his coffee over a newspaper worried about what was going to happen over the net week. He knew his team, and therefore he knew they would al be worring about the same thing right now... well, except Abby. She was probably really excited about speanding time with them.

He thought about some of the topics that were likely to be brought up over the couse of the week. Most of them revolving around feelings and how the team got along. He laughed to himself at the thought of Ziva being forced to talk about feelings. Then sighed, knowing that some of these feelings they would be disscussing would revolve around relationships.

Over the past few years, he couldn't help but noticed how close Ziva and Tony had come. Anybody with eyes could see the feelings they had for eachother, and it just made him all the more thankful for rule number twelve. He did not want to see his team get hurt the way he had been.

Thinking about relationships cause his mind to drift to Abby and McGee. He knew they had seen eachother a while back, but sometimes doubted as to whether or not those feelings had completely gone away. Only time could tell.

His thoughts then drifted towards the Director of NCIS. He considered Jenny to be a close personal friend... but he knew she expected him to look at her as a director, or at least, that's what she said. His thoughts flashed back to Paris, so many years before, and he smiled. He hadn't told his team yet, but due to the fact that an equal amount of boys and girls had to attend the camp, Jenny was being forced to attend, too. The smile stayed plastered on his face as he imagined what the following week would have in store for him, and his team.

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It was late that evening when the team finally received the e-mails containing the details about what they would be going through the following day. They opened their e-mails (Gibbs somewhat reluctantly) and began to read.

The e-mail basically just stated they needed to arrive at the camp by noon the following day. They needed to bring enough clothes to last them the week, plus a bathing suit as there was a lake they could swim in their free time. They would be attending therapy classes involving the whole group, individuals, and partners, everyday for a few hours. The rest of the day they would either have "bonding time" in which they could pretty much do whatever they wanted, or they would be completing group activities. The team went to bed with thoughts of the next week going through their heads as they slowly drifted off to sleep

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**A/N: Well, there is chapter 2. Hoped you liked it. I am open to any ideas from my readers, so please criticize away.**

**Oh, and they will most definitely arrive at the camp next chapter. Review please!!!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well here is my next chapter. They arrive at the camp here. Yay. Definitely much funnier than the previous chapter. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I still do not own any of the amazing character of NCIS... I just mess with their heads. :)**

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Chapter 3: Camp Heartland

Tony arrived outside Ziva's apartment early the next morning grinning. They had decided to carpool so they did not have to drive five different cars for four and a half hours. Abby was driving up with McGee.

Ziva couldn't help but smile at Tony's face when she exited her building with her bags under her arms. His happiness was contagious.

He walked up to her and took one of her three bags to load into the back of his car. "Excited Zee-vah?" he asked, already knowing the answer was no.

"That depends what you are referring to." She replied. "I am most definitely NOT excited about having to spend the next six hours stuck in a car with you. But I am excited to have so many opportunities to torture you over the next week."

At this comment Tony's mind automatically went to other gutter, but he was too smart to make a sexual comment to Ziva right before being stuck in a car with her. "It's not six hours Zee-vah. It's four and a half."

"That is true of a competent navigator who is half-way decent at reading a map, but not you Tony. After we have gotten lost four times, it will have taken six hours."

"Ha ha ha. Very funny. At least I'll get us there in one piece. If you were driving it would probably take two days 'cause we would have to take a detour to the nearest hospital."

She just rolled her eyes at him, then changed the subject. "You seem to be looking forward to this. Why?"

He glanced over at her, not really sure how to answer. Honestly he wanted to know more about her, and he knew that these therapy sessions were definitely going to bring up her past, but he couldn't tell her that, so he improvised. "Just looking forward to seeing you in a bikini again." He said looking over at her and obviously giving her elevator eyes before turning back to the road. "You could speed up the process and tell me what it looks like."

Ziva bit back a mean comment, instead deciding to play along. She leaned over to him and whispered seductively in his ear. "Who ever said anything about _wearing_ a bathing suit."

Tony swallowed and looked over at her, sex in his eyes, this time looking her up and down slowly and for much longer than necessary.

Ziva hit him and screamed "Watch where you are going!!!!" as the car started to swerve.

Tony looked guiltily back at the road. "Stop tempting me Zee-vah." He said, a small smile on his face. "You know what I'm like around pretty girls. You never know what could happen next time."

"Yes, I do. We will end up dead wrapped around some tree. Now please, keep your eyes on the road." She responded, still shocked by what had just happened. Had he called her pretty?

The car ride was silent for the next few hours. Ziva was staring out the window watching the scenery fly past. They were driving down a freeway that had forests growing on either side. Meanwhile Tony tried to concentrate on not killing them both before they even got to the camp.

Finally Ziva broke the silence, "You were supposed to turn there." She said calmly.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the big heads up." He slowed the car and made a u-turn. He drove back to where Ziva had pointed out the turn. He pulled into what turned out to be an incredibly long driveway. When the reached the end there were already two other cars there.

"See!" Ziva complained, "We are the last ones here. You should have let me drive." They retrieved their bags out of the back of the car and carried them up to the admins office. They entered a small room with a desk on one end, and a couch and a few chairs around a table on the other. Oh, and tons of plants. Ziva and Tony went to greet the rest of the team and were surprised to find the Director sitting there, as well.

"Good afternoon madame director." Tony greeted her. "...what are you doing here."

"Well, Special Agent DiNozzo, as one of the camp policies is there needs to be an equal number of men and women attending, I was forced to come suffer along with you."

Ziva made herself comfortable, while Tony started snooping around the office and looking at the multiple degrees and awards on the walls. After a few minutes of talking about what they were expecting throughout the next week, the whole team jumped when Tony suddenly burst out laughing.

"Haahahaaaha!!! Oh my gosh! You guys HAVE to see this. Come here. Oh, this is classic!" Curious, everyone stood up to see what was so funny. He was looking at some 'Best Councilors' award and was doubled over laughing hysterically at the point.

They read over the paper, none of them seeing what was so funny. Ziva and Abby glanced at each other. "Ummm.... Tony I don't get it. Well, actually nobody gets it. What is so funny?" Ziva questioned him.

"Ahaha! Can't you guys read!?" He still got blank stares from everyone. "Come on people! Their NAMES! Hahaha! Wow their parents must have hated them." Everyone looked back at the names. Slowly a smile spread over all their faces, except Ziva's.

She was still studying at the paper intently while everyone else started laughing along with Tony. "I still do not see it." she said, a small frown on her face.

"Sound it out Ziva." Tony said teasing her at her lack ability to understand the pun involved. "You'll get it when you hear it."

Just then a man and a woman entered the room and the team all stopped laughing at once. The woman introduced them, "Hello. I am Anita Mandalay and this is is Ralph M. Pitt (A/N: that's R.M. Pitt), but you can call us Ralph and Anita." At this Ziva's eyes lit open and it took all her Mossad training to keep a straight face. Tony grinned over at her, realizing she finally got it. "We will be your camp councilors for the next week. Today you will all be getting situated in your cabins and eating dinner in the cafeteria just down the path outside you room. There we will introduce you to everyone else, and then you can all go to sleep. Doesn't that sound nice?"

The team all let out a sound of agreement, but it sounded far from nice. None of them really wanted to be here in the first place, except maybe Tony, but even he would rather be sitting at home on his couch watching a movie with a beautiful girl.

They left the office and walked over to to the cabin in which they would be staying. They entered and were amazed... and mildly surprised to find there was actually a heating system and running water. (They had not had very high expectations.) There were five amazing beds and two huge bathrooms. (One for the girls and one for the boys.) The room was huge and had a beautiful view of the woods out side. The team exchanged glances with each other, their mouths hanging open.

Then Ziva noticed something. She walked forward and squinted her eyes and frowned. "Has anyone else notice there are only five beds... there are six of us." They all looked around counting the beds, then recounting, as if they had counted wrong the first time.

Jenny tilted her head to the side, confused, "I don't get it," she said, "they knew there were six of us coming. I'm going to go talk to someone." And she left the room.

"I'll come with you." Gibbs said as she left, and he followed her out.

Tony, Ziva McGee and Abby smirked knowingly at each other. They both knew there had to be something personal between Gibbs and the director, but none of them, not even Abby, was dumb enough to ask.

Tony walked over to one of the beds and jumped on, burying his face in the pillow. "Oh my gosh. This is like, the most comfortable bed EVER! It's like... the ferrari of all beds. Come here Ziva, try this bed out with me." he said, patting the mattress next to him. This time only Abby and McGee smiled knowingly at each other again as Ziva walked over and jumped onto the bed next to Tony. It didn't matter if it was just shameless flirting, it was not like Tony ever hit on Abby, or Ziva on McGee. There was a special connection between the two of them, and everyone knew it.

A few minutes later Jenny and Gibbs walked back into the room and just rolled their eyes at the sight of Tony and Ziva. Jenny was the first to speak. "Apparently they didn't know how many of us there were going to be until a few days ago and they didn't have any rooms with six beds. They had to order a new bed, but the order got mixed up somewhere, so the bed won't arrive until tomorrow morning. Two of us are going to have to share a bed tonight." Everyones heads turned slowly to Tony and Ziva. After realizing what everyone was thinking Ziva jumped out of bed.

"No no no no no no no no!" she said quickly. "No way. There is no way you are getting me to share a bed with that!"

"Hey!" Said Tony indignantly. Then he grinned. "I'm not that bad in bed." Everyone groaned at his bad joke.

Gibbs turned to Ziva. "You didn't seem to mind a minute ago. Besides, I think majority rules. All in favor of Tony and Ziva sharing a bed tonight?" Abby, McGee, Jenny and himself all raised their hands, grinning, causing Tony and Ziva to groan. After a minute Gibbs got serious. "But don't you two forget there are other people in this room, so no funny business." They both opened their mouths to object to this accusation, but Gibbs silenced them with a look. "I don't want to hear it, just know that's an order." They didn't try to push the subject.

After much arguing, cussing, and a bloody nose (from Ziva to Tony), the team unpacked and got situated in their new living arrangements. Gibbs and Jenny just stood by and watched. "You'd think they were a bunch of three year olds." Commented Jenny, smiling at the scene. Gibbs chuckled and agreed.

By the time they were finished unpacking, it was time for dinner. They walked in to the cafeteria, and were startled to find it filled with people. It was not a huge building, but there were a good 50 or so people.

"I do not understand." Said Ziva, frowning. "Why are there other people here. I was not over the impression that there would be other people here."

Tony smiled. "It's _under_ the impression Zee-vah, and I don't know." But now that he thought about it, he realized it might be kind of weird, not to mention really awkward, to be at a therapy camp with only six people.

After they had finished eating the counselors entered the room, accompanied by a few others and sat down at their table. Ralph introduced them. "Hello team NCIS, I would like to introduce you to Ginger Rayl and Willie Leak. They will be you physical trainers; you will be exercising twice a day. More will be explained to you about this later. And this is Mike Easter." at this Tony whispered "More like Mike ass." in Ziva's ear, causing her to snicker. Ralph looked over at her, causing her to stop laughing, so he continued. "If you have any questions what-so-ever, ask him. That is all, thank you." They staff exited the building.

Back at the cabin everyone had gotten ready for bed. The lights were out and Tony and Ziva were laying as far apart as they could get from each other on the bed without falling off. Right before he drifted off to sleep, Tony muttered, "You know Ziva, if we stay here too long, I might accidently start to call you Anna Sasin." Ziva just smiled and fell asleep.

**A/N: SEEEEEE!!! I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE FUNNY ;)**

**AND BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING, I KNOW THERE IS ACTUALLY NO CAMP OR THERAPY... OR ANYTHING REALLY THAT MAKES IT A REQUIREMENT FOR THERE TO BE AN EQUAL NUMBER OF GUYS AND GIRLS. I JUST NEEDED AN EXCUSE FOR JENNY TO COME; AND HEY, ITS MY STORY. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO MAKE SENSE.**

**R&R :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE. I WAS HAVING WRITERS BLOCK. I ACTUALLY GOT INSPIRED FOR THIS CHAPTER WHILE WRITING AN ESSAY ON POVERTY FOR ENGLISH. NO, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE POOR, I JUST HAVE A VERY SHORT ATTENTION SPAN. LOL. ALSO THEN MY MOM CONFISCATED MY LAPTOP BECAUSE I WAS SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME ON IT. LOL. OH WELL. THIS CHAPTER IS REALLY SUPER SHORT, BECAUSE NOW ALTHOUGH I KNOW BASICALLY WHAT I'M GOING TO WRITE, I CAN'T SEEM TO PUT IT INTO WORDS. OH BUT DON'T WORRY, NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO BE LIKE, A KA-JILLION PAGES. SO LOOK FORWARD TO IT.**

**(**_**DON'T READ THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES IF YOU HAVEN'T YET SEEN KNOCKOUT YET. SPOILER. SO YEAH, I LOVED ALL THE SUGGESTED TIVA IN THIS EPISODE. ALL THAT "YOU JUST NEED TO FIND THE RIGHT WOMAN" "MAYBE YOU NEED TO LOOK CLOSER TO HOME" STUFF WAS DRIVING ME INSANE. COME ON TONY LOOK RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUY AND YOU WILL SEE THE RIGHT WOMAN IS RIGHT THERE. GOSH, EVEN TARA KOLE COULD SEE IT AND SHE JUST MET THEM. AGGGGG!!!! ITS KILLING ME!!!) **_**SORRY, JUST VENTING. SO YEAH READ AND REVIEW MY LOVES. HERE I GO.**

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NCIS. BLAH.... BLAH.... BLAH.**

CHAPTER 4. I Can't Believe You Talked Me Into This...

"I can't believe you talked me into this Abby." McGee said worriedly as he and Abby crept out of bed and out into the night air.

"Relax McGee, nothing bad is going to happen."

"How do you know that. What if there are bears out here. What if Gibbs or Tony or Ziva wakes up? What if there is poison ivy out here? what if..."

"McGee.... SHHHHHH!!! Calm down. Breath in, breathe out. No one is going to catch us. Its fine. Now. Commence Operation Get Tony and Ziva Together. OGTZ for short... maybe we should call it ogg-ti-zeh around the others so they don't know what we're talking about. Ohhhh! We could use code names and everything. I get to be.."

"Abby. And now you need to be quiet." She nodded and zipped her mouth shut. McGee took a deep breath still not believing he was about to do this. "Come on. Let's just get this over with..." And they made their way through the darkness...

-----------------------------------------------

Ziva woke up early the next morning to find her in bed next to Tony, his arm wrapped around her. She turned to push him away, but the look on his face changed her mind. He looked so innocent when he was sleeping. She smiled and snuggled closer to him, savoring the moment, and fell asleep again in Tony's arms.

It was close to 730 when Tony woke up to find his arms wrapped around Ziva. Her head was resting against his chest. He was about to pull her closer and go back to sleep, when he remembered that Gibbs was in the room, and if he woke up and saw them, they'd be in big trouble. Plus, Ziva might personally show him one of those 18 ways to kill someone with a paper clip. So he decided to get up. He slowly eased his way out of bed and towards the bathroom as Ziva slept on.

About twenty minutes after Tony got out of bed, Ziva woke up again and found herself alone. A frown formed on her face. The bathroom door suddenly opened, causing light to stream over her face. She squinted her eyes and looked up into the light, ready to kill whoever it was. Tony stepped out bathed, dressed, and ready for the day. He walked over to the bed and lay down on top of the covers next to Ziva, a huge grin plastered on his face. "Comfortable last night?" he asked. Ziva blushed, realizing his arms were probably still around her when she woke up.

She was saved from answering when Jenny stepped out from the girls bathroom, also ready for the day, and said "I don't know how well you two slept last night, but I know I didn't. You both snore. Loud."

Abby sat up and yawned. "Tell me about it. I didn't get hardly any sleep last night. You two were louder than a Brain Matter concert... individually."

"That, Abby, was improper English." Tony said smiling at Abby. Then he turned to Ziva a horrified expression on his face. "Oh my gosh! Ziva is contagious!!! What if I'm infected."

Ziva just rolled her eyes. "Tony, what ever disease it is that you have you most certainly did not get it from me. Just wait, in a few years the earth's population will be going extinct from 'DiNozzoitius'."

He just smirked, then turned to the rest of the team. "I'd hurry up you guys, breakfast ends at 900, and lunch isn't 'till 1230, so if you don't want to starve, I suggest you get ready. If anyone else is ready, I'm going to eat now."

"Yeah, and you will still probably be the last to leave. Wow. We haven't even been here a day, and you already have the meals schedules memorized." McGee laughed.

Tony glared over at him. "Well, I'm going and I hope I DON'T see you at breakfast." and he stomped out of the room.

Shortly afterwards, Ziva, Jenny and Gibbs went to join him. McGee and Abby stayed behind for a few minutes, Abby claiming she 'forgot something she needed'. Gibbs just rolled his eyes at them before he left.

As they entered the cafeteria, they found Tony flirting with a gorgeous blond. The girl walked away when she saw the look in Ziva's eyes. Ziva fought back a pang of jealousy when they sat down and tried to keep her voice casual as she asked "Who is your friend, Tony?"

"Oh, hey guys. That was Marisa. She was just telling me some of the funner activities to do around here during our free time." he answered, smiling mischievously.

"Do you have to pick out every girl that approaches you, Tony?" Ziva kept her voice steady, but Tony could read the pain in her eyes like a book. He couldn't stand it.

He smiled playfully at her. "First of all, it's pick 'up' or 'check' out, second, they have to be hot, and third, I wasn't picking her up. She came over to talk to me and I didn't want to be rude." This made Ziva feel a little better, but only a little.

They all got food from the buffet and ate, right when Abby and McGee entered, none of them talking much. The reality had started to sink in that the day was beginning, and they were all lost in thoughts, dreading the day to come.

------------------------------------------------

It was time for their first therapy session before they knew it. It was right after lunch, when they started walking over to the room. Tony kept trying to break the awkward silence with bad jokes until Ziva punched him.

They entered a room. It had a foof chair, two couches and two arm chairs. Jenny and Gibbs automatically took one couch while McGee and Abby took the other.

Tony and Ziva raced to the foof chair and started fighting over who would get it. It was on the point of getting physical when Anita and Ralph entered the room. They looked over and automatically stopped fighting, and just shared the chair.

Anita glanced at them momentarily, but focused her attention on the group as a whole. "Ok, team Gibbs, as you all probably know, we will be having these sessions once a day for the next five days. Plus, if we feel it is needed, which it usually is among groups this large, additional sessions will be scheduled for individuals and/or pairs. I hope you will all find this an enlightening experience..."

**A/N: See. Short. But like I said, next chapter will be super long. It will contain the whole session, their reactions to the session, and another little suprise. What McGee and Abby did will come up later... Oh If you don't know what a foof chair is you are seriously missing out on life. there is a link on my profile if you want to see it. It is basically a giant, overly comfortable bean bag chair.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: OK, SO I FINALLY GOT INSPIRED AND THE CHAPTER ENDED UP BEING LIKE, 20 PAGES, SO I DECIDED TO DIVIDE IT UP. I'LL POST THE OTHER HALF EITHER TOMORROW OR WENDSDAY. NOW FOR THE STORY... THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO VJGM. SHE INSPIRED THE BEGINNING OF THE CHAPTER :) WELL, ANYWAY, HERE IS TEAM GIBBS IN THEIR FIRST THERAPY SESSION.... PLUS A LITTLE MORE. :) OH, AND PARTS OF THIS CHAPTER ARE A LITTLE OOC... I COULDN'T GET IT QUITE RIGHT, BUT WHATEVER, I STILL THINK IT TURNED OUT OK. R&R. AND ENJOY!**

**DISCLAIMER: SADLY I STILL DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE AMAZING CHARACTERS OF NCIS. (IF I DID, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR THIS STORY). **

Don't Play With Fire

_Anita glanced at them momentarily, but focused her attention on the group as a whole. "Ok, team Gibbs, as you all probably know, we will be having these sessions once a day for the next five days. Plus, if we feel it is needed, which it usually is among groups this large, additional sessions will be scheduled for individuals and/or pairs. I hope you will all find this an enlightening experience..."_

-----------------------------------

The team continued to sit there silently, watching the shrinks and waiting to see what was going to happen next. An awkward silence began to develop Anita filled it hastely. "Okay! I can see you are a shy group," they all smirked at each other. "So let's take a minute to relax and get comfortable."

"I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pretty relaxed and comfortable here." Tony grinned and yawned loudly, stretching to rest his arm over Ziva's shoulders. _Obviously has problems with other's personal space._

Ziva glared at him pushed his arm away and hissed in his ear. "Well why don't you go make yourself comfortable somewhere else."

Ralph and Anita had sat down and watched their whole bickering match with amused looks on their faces. They had taken out notbooks and stared jotting down any observations they may want to cover more deeply later. _At least she will stand up for herself. I hate those girls who will let a guy do anything cuz she is too scared to stand up to him._

Ralph decided it was time to interrupt, so he started talking loudly to get their attention. "Well, let's get this started. We were not briefed on any of you before you came, since that would be considered an invasion of privacy since this is therapy, so we don't know much about you personally, only what you do directly for NCIS. Let's begin. Director Shepard..."

"Please call me Jenny." She smiled, Gibbs scowled. _Was that jealousy?_

"Okay then, Jenny, it seems you made the official decision to attend therapy, what caused you to make this decision?"

Everyone turned to look at her before she spoke. Considering all the attention was focused on her she was relatively calm. "The situations this team have been put through are... complicated. It seems there has been a lot of unneeded tension among the team and I felt this would be a good way to work it out." Anita and Ralph monitored the teams reactions to her answer; they all seemed satisfied. _Hmm... they seem to respect their boss... that's one thing we won't need to cover. _

"So, Jenny, you are the Director of NCIS, Gibbs is the boss of the team. Tony and Ziva are partners, McGee is another field agent who occasionally assists Abby, the forensic scientist. Is that correct?" Everyone nodded in approval.

"So... if this is about... tension, where should we begin?" The whole team turned and pointed to Tony who was, in turn, pointing to Ziva. _ Why doesn't this surprise me... _

"What!" Objected Tony, "What is this?! Tension is NOT my fault, how the heck can you say it's all me?!"

"Oh we're not saying it's all you," said Abby, smiling at him, "Just... most of it."

"Yeah, says the girl who fantasies about killing us." _Hmm... should I be concerned?_

"What! Where'd you get that from!!"

"Hmm... Let me think, oh yeah! 'Don't forget I am one of the few people who can kill you and leave no forensic evidence'." _Has she actually said that!?... Can she actually do that!?_

McGee jumped to her defense, "Yeah, but she would never actually kill any one, what about Ziva she is a..." _Getting defensive there. How cute... Hmm... Where do I recognize him from? _

"A psychopathic murderer." Tony finished for him grinning. _Wait... is he seriously happy about the fact that this girl kills people! No no, they must be kidding. Plus they are getting a little off topic..._

"WHAT!! I am not a murderer. A murderer is one who kills without permission and with negative intensions. I am an assassin. I have permission, well, i get orders, _and_ I only have the best intensions when I kill people." She said quickly, then thought about what she had said, "Wait, that did not come out right." _WHAT!!! She kills people for a living! What the heck do they do at NCIS! I thought they solved Navy crimes... _

"Hey, let's not get off subject," said McGee interrupted, "Don't forget, who causes the most tension? And also don't forget the answer... Tony." _Thank you._

"Okay, that's it! Give one example in which I have caused unneeded tension amongst the team."

"You constantly act like a child..." _I can see him doing that._

"You glue my fingers to my keyboard and my face to my desk..." _Wow, this guy's creative._

"You throw paper and spit wads..." _Umm... that is a little childish._

"You mess with my chair and my computer..." _How does he find the time to do all this?!_

"You are constantly making sexual jokes and invading into our private lives...." _That is getting a little personal..._

"Speaking of which you always are making jokes and bugging me about my private life and sex life..." _Wow. I need to ask him about that later._

"WAIT!" shouted Tony, "That's not true McGoo. I bug you about your lack of a private life and sex life. There is a huge difference there." _So obviously you have a profound private/sex live._ "And besides, I'm not the only one who invades privacy, what about McAuthor over here.

"HEY! When have I ever... Oh wait..."

"Yeah, your _book._ It is telling the whole world about our personal lives!" _Ah HA!!! I knew I'd seen him before. He's that author! What's the title.... oh yeah, Deep Six! Wait... that's about the team. Hmm... now I need to read this, see what he thinks of the team. WAIT!! That gives me an idea._

Anita interrupted there debate, "Well... it seems we're learning a lot about each other but we're almost out of time, so I want to wrap this up. After listening to what you are saying, I want to assign a little homework. Before our next session, I want you to write up something on what you think of the other members of your team. It could be anything: What you like about them, or what you don't like about them. Next session we will discuss what you said today, and what you wrote about. I think it is a good idea to talk these feelings over and let each other know how you feel. It will allow you to be closer and trust each other more. Ok, now, before we leave, I want to do a quick little exercise to help you show each other you care. So come on now everyone, group hug!"

"YAY!" Said Abby and jumped up, then looked around dissapointed when no one else gave the same reaction and sat back down.

They all stared at Anita. "What?!" Gibbs asked shortly.

"Come on now. It will make you all feel better. Group hug."

"Yeah everyone," Abby insisted "Group hug."

They all glanced awkwardly at the others. Tony spoke up "Umm, sorry to rain on your parade, but I do NOT think that's going to happen."

Ziva looked over at him, confused, "It is not raining, Tony."

Tony laughed, "It's a figure of speech Ziva." The counselors looked at him for an explanation. "English isn't her first language. She doesn't get all the idioms and stuff."

"Ah. Now... hmm, if you wont hug..."

"Yes we will." Abby insisted. "Now everyone stand up!" Not able to resist Abby's enthusiasm, the team groaned and stood. Anita and Ralph watched in shock as the whole team followed the orders of the goth. _Oh my gosh! They are listening to this scary goth better then they are listening to us! I wonder if she ever uses that against them..._

The team stood up, got into a group and quickly hugged each other before letting go quickly. Ziva complained "Abby, never do that again!" _Wow, we told them to do that, and Abby is being blamed for making them do it. She has too much power over this team._

"Okay, well, I think this was a good first session. As I have already said, we will go into more detail over the next few. It is almost two o'clock..."

"1400." They corrected him automatically.

"Right... 1400... Okay, well as I was saying, it is _1400 _now and your daily workout session doesn't begin until four thirty."

"1630."

"OKAY. 1630. After that you can go eat, then you will have the rest of the day to yourselves. We will see you all tomorrow."

They all grumbled a goodbye as the practically ran out of the room. Anita and Ralph glanced at each other as they exited the room, with only one thought in their minds. _This is going to be an interesting group._

---------------------------------------------

There seemed to be a sort of silent agreement amongst the team there would be no further discussion of the therapy session until tomorrow when they were forced to. There was an awkward silence building until Tony decided to break it. "Soooo...." he started, then didn't know what to say. Ziva covered for him.

"What do you want to do for the next few hours?"

"We could... umm... swim?"

"Naw, our stuff is in the cabin, and I don't feel like walking back."

"Hmm..."

Abby finally saved them from the forced conversation. "Let's go horseback riding!" she said, grinning mysteriously over at McGee, who replied by rolling his eyes back at her.

Ziva looked at her suspiciously, but agreed. "They have horseback riding here?"

"Of course. What camp doesn't have horseback riding?!"

"I have never actually been horseback riding..." said Ziva slowly.

"Then let's go." Tony said quickly, a huge smile on his face, and they followed Abby to the horses.

The entered the stables and quickly scrunched their noses in disgust. "Oh my, it does not smell very good in here."

"Wato 'tate tee obious, Sea-va." Tony said, plugging his nose. Ziva's reply was cut off by a tall man in a cowboy's hat walking towards them.

"Howdy! Do y'all wanna go fer a ride?" He said, in an obviously fake southern accent.

"Why, ah reckon we do." Tony countered with a much better impression, causing the cowboy to glare at him.

"Very funny. Now wait here while I go get some horses saddled up."

At that moment McGee cut him off, "Do you know what? I don't really feel like horseback riding... it has never really been my thing. I'm going to go find something else to do."

"I'll go with you." Abby said quickly.

"Umm... okay. Ziva?" He looked at her, worried that now she would change her mind about wanting to go if was only going to be the two of them.

"You know, we could do this some other time when there are more of us..." she started, but then changed her mind from the look in his eyes. What was that? Disappointment? Pain almost? "But then again we might not get another chance, so let us go ride the horses."

Tony immediately brightened up, especially when he saw two saddled horses walking towards them. "Ohhh! I get the black one!"

Ziva rolled her eyes. "You are such a child."

They got onto the horses and rode off along a trial the cowboy had pointed out to them.

----------------------------------

In another part of the camp Abby and McGee were sneaking towards a pair of big wooden doors... "Okay Timmy. Now's our chance to finish this. OGTZ is back in action..."

----------------------------------

Just over two hours later Abby and McGee practically ran into Tony and Ziva, who were turned a corner from the opposite direction, laughing about something. "Gosh McClumbsy, watch where you're going."

"What are you two laughing about," McGee asked curiously.

"None of you McBuisness, McGeek."

McGee sniffed indignantly, "Come on let's go to the gym, we have that workout that starts in a few minutes."

Tony thought about that for a minute, "You know this kinda sucks. I bring clothes for everything but the gym. I didn't think there would be a gym here. Heck I didn't even think there would be air conditioning."

"They are providing gym clothes." McGee said shortly. "We need to change before we get there."

The four of walked quietly over to the gym, the whole time Ziva staring at Abby, trying to figure out what her and McGee were up to.

They arrived at the gym to find Gibbs and Jenny already there talking. The gym was basically empty. It seemed that during free time all the other people at the camp seemed to liked to swim.

"Finally, at first I thought you weren't going to show up." Gibbs scolded. "Here, these are the togs they are making us wear. Put 'em on and get back here a-sap."

"_Togs,_ really boss? I have heard them called that maybe once. I'm surprised I even know what you mean!"

"DiNozzo!"

"I'm going to change into my togs, got it boss." And he ran off to the locker rooms before Gibbs hand could meet the back of his head.

Less than ten minutes later, the six of them were lined up in front of the fitness trainers, ready for whatever they had in store for them.

"Okay team, in case you don't remember us, I am Ginger, and this is Willie. We will be making sure you get a healthy amount of exercise over the next few days to keep you healthy and full of energy!"

Over the next hour they were forced to lift weights, run and stretch, the whole while Tony making snide remarks to McGee, telling him to get in shape, then having either Ziva or Gibbs hit him on the back of the head, telling him to shut up. When the finished, they reluctantly thanked the instructors and went to the cafeteria to eat.

Dinner was eaten over mindless banter, joking, and flirting (mostly between Ziva and Tony) after which they got up and headed back to the cabin. They were almost back to their room when Ziva's eyes suddenly bolted open and she ran around the last corner. The others, worried, ran after her. As they turned the corner, they all stopped dead in their tracks and looked wide eyed and the officers put out the last remnants of the fire.

**OK, SO I THINK PARTS OF THIS CHAPTER CAME OUT A LITTLE RUSHED, BUT IT WAS GETTING WAY TOO LONG, AND I HAD TO CUT IT OFF SOMETIME, SO I AM LEAVING IT LIKE THIS FOR NOW. IF THERE IS ANY PART YOU WANT ME TO GO INTO MORE DETAIL ON, REVIEW, AND I WILL TRY TO INCORPORATE IT INTO THE STORY. AND LIKE I SAID, THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE UP WITHIN THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	6. Chapter 6

**OK, SO HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER. LUCKY FOR YOU, AND UNLUCKY FOR ME I GOT SICK, SO I STAYED IN BED ALL DAY WRITING IT. OTHERWISE IT PROBABLY WOULDN'T BE UP YET. JUST SO YOU KNOW I HAVE TAKEN ALL YOUR WONDERFUL COMMENTS FOR CONSIDERATION. THIS CHAPTER WAS INSPIRED BY A SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE PROJECT I HAVE TO DO FOR MY PSYCHOLOGY CLASS. YOU CAN JUST GUESS WHAT DIRECTION THE STORY TURNED. TEEHEE. WELL, HERE WE GO, R&R!**

**DISCLAIMER: LAST NIGHT I OWNED NCIS!!! IT WAS SO AMAZING! THEN I WOKE UP. AH WELL... MAYBE NEXT TIME. **

Chapter 6

They all just stood their for what seemed like hours, just staring, wondering how much damage had been done.

Finally Jenny got the nerve to go ask. She cautiously approached one of the men holding a giant hose and asked, " Umm, excuse me, but what exactly happened here?"

The rest of the team approached waiting to hear the worst. The fire man smiled and jumped into a jumbled explanation before anyone had a heart attack. "Oh don't worry. There is no terrible damage. Someone left a curling iron on in the bathroom right next to some hair spray, and there was a small explosion. The fire spread to the rest of the room before we got over here, but we managed to get your luggage out before any of it caught on fire. Three of the five beds burned down... the other two have no sheets, so I'm not sure what you are going to sleep on, but besides that nothing was permanently except for the stuff in the girls bathroom, which is all but incinarated... Oh, and it will probably smell like smoke for days."

Everyone's head turned slowly to Ziva and her currently curly hair. Ziva looked at them her eyes wide open, her mouth opening and closing as she searched for an explanation. They started moving in on her.

"The curling iron..."

"Look, it is not completely my..."

"Caught everything on fire..."

"I did no mean.."

"No beds..."

"I am really..."

"Smoke aroma...."

"How was I supposed to..."

"For DAYS!"

"LOOK!" She nearly shouted, "I am sorry if this causes anyone any problems, but I did not know a curling iron could be so hot. I did not think to check if it was off, Abby was rushing to get me out of here this morning and...."

"Whoa whoa whoa. Don't try putting this on me!" Abby said glaring at her.

Ziva took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm herself down. "I am sorry Abby, I did not mean to blame you. I understand that this is my fault. Just you please try to understand that I did not know anything about the danger of curling irons, and that I did not mean for any of this to happen. I am sorry, everybody."

The team started to calm down. Jenny smiled reassuringly at her. "It is completely okay Ziva, don't worry, we'll figure something out."

Gibbs took charge and went over to where some of the camp leaders, Anita, Mike and Willie, were standing, huddled together, discussing. "Hey! Camp people! What the hell are we going to do? Where are we going to sleep? and what are we going to do about our stuff?" There was a pause for a few seconds, terrified. "Come on people I need answers!" He practically shouted.

Mike drew up some courage, "I'm sorry Agent Gibbs, we are trying to figure something out. The other bed hadn't been installed yet, so you will have three beds tonight. You can leave for a few hours either tonight or tomorrow morning to drive to the store and replace your things. Is that ok?"

Gibbs glared at them, but replied "That will be fine." He walked back over to the rest of the team, "Girls! Did you all hear that? When would you rather go replace your things?

"Wait!! What about us?" complained Tony, we can go out too, right?"

"Why do you need to leave, DiNozzo, none of your stuf burned down."

"Well yeah, but... but." He stuttered, looking for an excuse. "But umm... Ziva! Ziva needs help carrying her things... and come on boss, she hates shopping, the least I can do is help her."

Ziva turned to face him and was about to object until she saw the pleading look in his eye, so she didn't say anything. 'I am going to regret this.' she thought to herself.

Gibbs just rolled his eyes, "Fine, whatever, you can go just so I don't have to put up with you for the next hour. You wanna go, too, Elf Lord?"

"Umm, no thanks boss I'm good. Actually that therapy session gave me a good idea for my next book..." Everyone groaned.

"Come on Probie, can't you find anyone _else_ to write about?"

"Nope," McGee said smiling, "I'm good." And Jenny, Abby, Ziva and Tony walked out the door to the cars.

---------------------------------------

Once they had exited the perimeter of the camp, the four of them cheered and laughed, happy they were free for a few hours. "Okay," Jenny said smiling, "Is there anywhere anywhere in particular you all want to go..."

"How about a bar?" suggested Tony grinning.

"Anywhere you want to go to replace the things that got burned down." she finished, laughing at the disappointed look that crossed Tony's face. "Tony we did not get to leave to goof off."

"Yes, Tony, you came to carry my things for me, remember." Ziva teased, looking over at him, then turning to Jenny. "And the closest store I remember seeing was a Walmart, about two and a half miles that way. I think we should just go there and get this over with."

Tony stared disbelieving at her. "Walmart?! We got a few hours to get out of that hell hole to shop and you want to go the _Walmart?!_"

"I thinks Ziva's right." Agreed Jenny, "The best thing to do would be to get this over with."

"Come on guys... er... girls, live a little, the closest city is only like, twenty minutes away, we could make it there, shop and get back in an hour and a half."

"Let me guess, Tony, you saw a club." said Ziva smirking over at him.

"...maybe... but that's not the point. Pleeeeeease!!"

"No, we are going to Walmart." Jenny said, finishing the conversation.

The rest of the ride there Tony spent grumbling about wanting to go somewhere, _anywhere_ else, but when they got there and entered the store, his whole demeanor changed. A smile lit up his face and he joked, "You know when I was a kid, I used to ditch my mom in the store and mess with the other customers."

Ziva's eyebrows knit together, "What do you mean?"

"You know, get into their heads, scare them out of the store, that sort of thing."

"Tony why would anyone do that?"

"So you never played one practical joke when you were little."

"Tony, in Mossad we had to..."

"Grow up fast. Oh yeah." He frowned slightly as he stood there watching her for a few minutes before he smiled and grabbed her hand, "Come here Ziva, we are going to use your ninja skills combined with creative skills to mess with the minds of ordinary citizens like none other has ever done before."

Ziva looked up at him, an amused expression on her face, "You want us, two adults, to go around and prank the other customers?"

"Yup." He said grinning _his_ grin, causing Ziva to be willing to do just about anything with him.

"Okay." She said in a dazed voice staring at him unashamedly.

"Umm... Ziva... Ziva are you okay?" He asked, his face falling slightly.

She snapped out of it, "What... oh, yes, I am fine. I just... dazed out a little."

"Zoned out, Zee-vah, but if you were dazed... or dazzled, left speechless, those work too." He replied, grinning again.

Ziva was about to walk away when she realized he was still holding her hand. She blushed slightly and pulled her hand away, causing Tony to grin even bigger.

"Wow! Did I just get the crazy assassin to blush."

Ziva ignored him. "Sheket bevakasha."

"Whatever that means... what should we do first..." They made their way down an isle.

"Tony, we shouldn't do this... I still have to replace what I lost in the fire..."

"Ziva, you're such a kill joy. Fine here." He went up to a lady's basket when her back was turned, "Here is a toothbrush and..." They walked to the next isle. "Here is a hairbrush and some rubber hair thingys. Happy?"

"Tony! You just stole out of that lady's basket! Is that even legal?"

"She hadn't paid for it yet, Zee-vah, it's fine. Consider it our first prank."

"Tony this is so childish."

"_That's_ why your having fun." he said teasingly, taking her hand again. "Now come on, we have work to do."

They snuck throughout the store looking for victims. At first Ziva felt like an idiot, but after they got away with their first few 'pranks' she started really enjoying herself. They started off simple. They would throw items over the top of one row into another, or putting all the wet floor signs on carpeted areas, or switching the signs of the men's and women's restrooms.

Then they started getting creative. They would wait until some victim's backs were turned, then walk away with their shopping carts, or they would put boxes of condoms in the shopping carts of practically everyone in the store. One of the better pranks was performed when Tony went up to a complete stranger who looked like he could be maybe 25, and started talking to him, "Hey dude! I haven't seen you in like YEARS! What's up!!" The look on the poor man's face was priceless. Obviously he didn't know Tony, but he didn't want to seem rude by not remembering him. He was saved from replying when Tony saw Abby and Jenny walk around a corner, and Tony had to leave before they were caught. "Oh, sorry, I have to go. I don't want Mommy to catch me." And he ran off leaving behind a very scared and confused man.

Half an hour later Tony and Ziva finished their rampage and went to meet up with Jenny and Abby, who were just finishing up their shopping. Jenny glared at the two of them. "Where have you two been?"

They glanced at each other and burst out laughing. "Hahaha. Umm... I mean, around the store. You know... Shopping."

"It took you 45 minutes to find a hair brush and a tooth brush."

Ziva looked at what she was holding. "Mishugena! I forgot toothpaste. Just a second." She was about to go get some when Tony grabbed her are.

"I'll get it sweetcheeks." He said grinning. "I'll meet you all in the car."

Jenny tried to stop him, not trusting him alone in the store. "Wait, Tony..." but he was gone.

They waited in line to pay and chatted amongst themselves as the cashier was scanning their items. Finally they were finished and walked out to the car to find Tony already there waiting for them. "Tony how did you do that?" Abby asked shocked.

"Express lane." He said shortly grinning. "Let's go."

Although Jenny and Abby bought it, Ziva knew he was hiding something. The ride back was filled with mindless banter and joking. They arrived back to camp in high spirits ready for the night.

They entered the cabin at about 2030 to the sound of Gibbs shouting. "Where the hell have you all been?! It's been like, two hours..... what the hell are those."

Jenny had just dumped out their purchases on the bed. Along with all the necessities, there was a bag of condoms. Everyone looked over at Tony.

He immediately went on the defensive, "What I didn't! I never even.... Oh my gosh." He and Ziva simultaneously looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Oh my gosh! hahaha!"

"When we.... haha"

"Jenny and Abby's basket. hahaha!!"

Gibbs stared at them hoping he was reading the signs wrong, "What is going on." Tony and Ziva stopped laughing.

"Absolutely nothing, boss."

"Nothing is going on."

Gibbs glared at them, "You know what, I've decided I don't want to know. Now about how long you were gone..."

"That's how long we were supposed to be gone..." Tony started.

"Yeah, but all of you still need to do that write up on us so you should have been faster. You don't have time tomorrow morning since we are scheduled for a group activity or what ever it is. By the way, I'm interested to know what you all think of me." Although Gibbs said this in a conversational tone, everyone could hear the threat in his voice.

"After you finish those I want you all in bed.... Tony you and Ziva share. McGee and Abby. Jenny, you with me."

Abby giggled, "Ewww! Mommy and Daddy are sleeping together." Tony and Ziva laughed, Jenny blushed and Gibbs glared.

About an hour later, everyone was in bed asleep, except for Abby, who was having a little bit too much fun on her homework assignment.

**WELL, THAT'S ALL FOR NOW. A WORD OF ADVICE... DON'T TRY TO EAT STRAWBERRIES WITH POWDERED SUGAR WHILE WRITING. I ACCIDENTALLY INHALED SUGER LIKE FOUR TIMES WHILE WRITING THE CHAPTER. NOW...**

**P-ERFECT, L-OVELY, E-XCEPTIONAL, A-MAZING, S-ILLY, E-XTRAORDINARY**

**R-AD, E-NTERTAINING, V-ALUABLE, I-NTRIGUING, E-XCITING, W-ITHOUT DOUBT THE MOST AMAZING THING I HAVE EVER READ IN MY INTIRE LIFE.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: THANKS FOR ALL THE GET WELL SOONS, THEY DIDN'T WORK. BUT WHAT EVER. MORE TIME TO WRITE. LAST NIGHT I HAD A DREAM ABOUT TONY AND ZIVA, I HAVE BEEN WATCHING NCIS FOR YEARS AND THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED. SEE WHAT THIS FANFICTION IS DOING TO ME!!! I CAN'T EVEN THINK STRAIGHT ANYMORE. ANYWAY.... HERE'S THE NEXT CHAPTER. SO R&R, BLAH BLAH BLAH YOU KNOW THE DRILL.**

**DISCLAIMER: ALTHOUGH I DO HAVE SOME OF THE MOST AMAZING READERS IN THE WHOLE WORLD... I WOULD RATHER OWN NCIS. LOL. SORRY GUYS, BUT YOU ALL KNOW YOU WOULD SAY THE SAME THING IN MY POSITION. ENJOY!!!**

Chapter 7: The Maze

Tony woke up the next morning mildly disappointed. He was facing the outside of the bed, meaning he wasn't wrapped around Ziva. He flipped over to find her missing. At first he panicked and sat up, but then realized it was already 605, and she had probably had got up to go running. She had mentioned she missed that while riding the horse the day before, so she probably found a trail and went. Remembering the riding expedition, got him thinking about the previous day's events. He smiled as he recalled...

The therapy session was crazy. The rest of the team had blamed him for causing unneeded tension at work. He had denied it at the session, but he knew it was ture. But come on, who could get through a day of work with out having some fun.

The shrinks had said they would be talking about what was mentioned yesterday today. He was mildly worried about that. He had called Ziva a murderer. The looks on the faces of the shrinks told him they didn't know why she worked for NCIS. He smiled to himself... he was going to have some fun with that.

Then he remembered what else they would be talking about... their homework. He wasn't sure what to make of the homework. He had written the team was like a family to him. Gibbs was the father, Jenny was the mother, McGee was the annoying little brother and Abby was the hyper teenage sister. But then he got to Ziva... Where did she fit in. He liked to think of her as family, but he really hoped most family's didn't think some of the things he thought about Ziva. He cared for her deeply, but he didn't want that to come out during a therapy session. Not very... romantic, and definitely not his style. Next to her name on the paper, all he had written was I wouldn't be alive without her. Although the manifest content of that statement was she had saved his life before, which was true, latently, he was saying he couldn't live without her. Hopefully no one figured that out.

His thoughts then drifted towards the horseback riding. That was interesting. They had ridden along the path the "cowboy" guy had pointed out for almost forty-five minutes when they had come across a clearing in the woods around them. It was very pretty. It was perfectly symmetrical. They has spent a few minutes wrapped around the beauty of the place before they turned around and went back. They hadn't talked about anything very important, but they had talked, and that meant more to Tony then he could care to admit. They didn't do enough of that.

The 'fitness training' had been totally pointless. They were all in pretty good shape, just because of their work, and Ziva, of course, had done better that all of them at all the cardio. work. Besides that it had been very boring. Of course they had goofed off, but they would have done that no matter where they were.

That reminded him of Walmart. That had been nice, seeing Ziva let loose for a few minutes. She deserved to have fun sometimes, and it was nice to see her smile. Her smile... she should smile so much more often.

Ziva chose that moment to enter the room. She was wearing the gym clothes and was covered in a thin layer of sweat.

"Hey sweetcheeks." Tony greeted her in a whisper, "I was worried for a second there... wait a sec... isn't the gym locked up over night.... never mind. You picked the lock."

She grinned at him. "Yes, and I need to return them before anyone notices they are missing. So I am just going to.... Oh my gosh, look." She pointed out to the rest of the team. They were still asleep and wrapped around each other, Gibbs and Jenny, McGee and Abby.

"Heh. Blackmail." He said as he got up silently, got out his phone and took a picture of McGee and Abby. He had turned to do the same to his bosses, but thought better of it. "Maybe that wouldn't be the best idea."

"Probably not, now I'm going to take a shower," and she walked over to the girl's bathroom door.

"You know, we could save water and..."

"No." Ziva said testily.

Tony sulked, but went to the other bathroom to shower as well.

When Ziva finished her shower she got out to mildly regret not spending more time shopping the day before. She had had fun with Tony, no matter how childish and demeaning it had been, but now she was lacking part of her usual morning routine. She got over it quickly, though, deciding it was completely worth the fun. Besides, they would only be a few more days...

Tony exited the shower feeling full of energy. After doing some more thinking he and realized some thing, and it gave him a good feeling about how today would turn out. The sound of the rest of the team waking up caused him to smile a little bigger than he normally would this early in the morning. "Rise and shine everyone! It's going to be an amazing day today," He said excitedly, "I can feel it."

"If your gut is telling you something, DiNozzo, you're probably just hungry." Gibbs greeted him.

"Good morning to you too boss. Probie!" He shouted, overexcited to see his fellow employee, "Sleep well? Good! How about you Abby, Boss, Jenny? Nice to see your all awake." They all stared over at him like he was crazy.

McGee look over to the boss and whispered, "Boss, I think he's finally cracked." Tony glared at him, but the smile spread across his face again when Ziva walked out of the bathroom to the stunned faces of her coworkers. She looked at them, her brow coming together in a questioning way.

"Umm... what is going on...." But she couldn't finish.

"Zee-vah! You're finished!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door. "Come get breakfast with me." She was too shocked to do anything, so just let him pull her towards the door. She turned around blinking rapidly, looking for an explanation. The rest of the team merely shrugged and continued to wake up and start the day.

Abby, McGee, Gibbs and Jenny entered the cafeteria and looked around to find Tony and Ziva sitting together, Tony chattering nonstop, Ziva staring at him across the table, one eyebrow raised, looking at him like he was crazy.

Breakfast was eaten in complete silence, except for Tony's constant babble. Everyone was quite relieved to finish and get out of there.

The first few hours of the morning was to be dedicated to 'team bonding'. No one was particularly happy with this, but they didn't have much of a choice.

They walked along a short trail leading away from the main part of the camp to a large open area with a giant building in the center labeled as an obstacle course, Tony still talking consistently the whole way. There were many other people arriving at the field aside from the team. When Tony finally looked at his surroundings, his mood dropped slightly. "What. The hell. Is this? You have _got_ to be kidding me. An obstacle course! What are we, twelve?"

"Not just an obstacle course, but a maze as well." Said a fat man approaching them. "You can't see very well until you begin, but there are walls set up, so you can only get out a certain way."

"_Why_ do we have to do this?" Gibbs asked demandingly.

"You will be divided into partners according to who you work the most with. Each pair will be tied together. It will teach you to listen to each other, work together and respect your coworkers decision." They looked at him unconvinced, but didn't argue. The sooner they were done with this the better. "Okay, it looks like Gibbs will be paired with Jenny, Tony with Ziva, and Timothy with Abby." They reluctantly allowed him to tie them together. There was only a few feet of rope between them. "You will have an unlimited amount of time to finish, but the sooner you are allowed to leave. Good luck teams. You may start whenever you are ready. And don't forget to have fun." He walked away leaving them to their problems.

The pairs glanced at each other. The unspoken words allowed each person to know this wasn't just a bonding activity anymore. This was so much more. This was war.

The rope greatly hindered their coordination ability, but they disregarded this fact and charged into the maze.

**AS I SAID ABOVE, THERE WAS ANOTHER CHAPTER. I HAVE MUCH IN STORE FOR THE TEAM OVER THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS, SO STAY TUNED. I SHOULD HAVE ANOTHER CHAPTER POSTED IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS, BUT I AM MILDLY BUZY WITH THE HOLIDAYS AND EVERYTHING. R&R AND ALL THAT JAZZ!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: TWENTY ONE REVIEWS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER! YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING! THANKS TO ALL YOU AWESOME REVIEWERS OUT THERE. SO HERES MY NEXT CHAPTER, I KNOW IT'S BEEN A WHILE.. BUT I WROTE A FEW EXTRA CHAPTERS, SO I SHOULD UPDATE PRETTY CONSTANTLY NOW. PLUS AP TESTS ARE DISTRACTING ME. I HAVE TO TAKE **_**THREE! **_**SO NOW, READ AND REVIEW!**

**DISCLAIMER: I **_**STILL**_** DON'T OWN NCIS! #*$% IT! (SORRY IT YOU DON'T LIKE CUSSING.)**

Chapter 8: In the Maze

Entering the indoor maze became the first challenge as both individual in the pairs wanted to take charge. Naturally, the three women won the fight for domination, so, the three of them led their partner into the maze.

Abby and McGee were the first to enter, as McGee almost immediately gave into Abby's glare. Gibbs and Jenny were next. Although Gibbs did not want to give in to her, he didn't want to waste too much time arguing over it, so he just gave in, figuring he could sneak in to control later on. Last, of course, were Tony and Ziva; Ziva refusing to be a follower and Tony refusing to be led by a girl. Eventually Ziva exploited physical force to gain control of the situation. By the time they actually entered, Abby and McGee were finishing up the first task, and Gibbs and Jenny were a little over half way done.

The first task was for the pairs to make their way over a ladder that was a little over sixteen feet high. There were eleven rungs altogether, and a drop off on the other side.

"Ta'ase li tova, ya manyak! Tony this is your fault! Now come on, we have a lot of dirt to catch down off." Ziva exclaimed, taking her anger at being in last out on Tony.

"Heh. Ziva, your english gets worse when you're angry. It's _ground_ to catch _up_ on. And you could've just let me lead." He replied as they started up the ladder.

**"**No, I could not, because you would goof off the whole time," she scolded, reaching the top and swinging her legs over, waiting for him to catch up.

Tony pulled himself over the top using only his arm muscle, showing off a little. It worked, Ziva's breath caught as she watched how smoothly he swung over the top almost gracefully**. **She clenched her teeth and forced herself to focus on the task. As he let go, she, too, dropped. They worked perfectly together, landing at the same time.

When the hit the ground, Tony made sure to steady her. He wasn't completely unaware of the way she was completely mesmerized by him for a few seconds as he threw himself over the wall, and was very pleased by himself. She glared at him and kept moving.

They now had a choice to make. Straight, left or right. Tony made to continue going straight, for which they had a relatively simple obstacle, but Ziva dragged him off to the left, towards another much more difficult task.

"Zee-vah, why would we go towards something hard, when there is a really easy task right there. We only have to go over a bar and under a bar. Simple, easy, and to the point."

"That is why we should go left. They would not let us perform all the easy tasks, but the challenging ones."

"This isn't Mossad, Zee-vah. Not everything has to be rigorous." But he went along with her to prevent more arguing.

The next few challenges were finished with ease, until they reached a dead end. Tony looked at Ziva, an amused expression on his face. "Okay. I'm making the next decision."

"What do you propose we do."

"Go back to where we came from and go _straight_."

"That was two decision." Tony stared at her exasperatedly.

"Like it matters. Now come on, we're wasting time."

The maze became more and more complicated as they went. Being indoors, contrary to what most would think, caused more problems then it solved. At one point in time, all the lights in the building were completely shut off for about a ten minute interval, making the task Tony and Ziva were performing, twice as hard. (Which just so happened to be an espalier.)Besides the fact there was no light, half the girls in the maze started screaming, startling Tony, and causing him, consequently Ziva, to fall off.

Tony and Ziva also passed a few people they didn't know; some of the other people there for therapy, or bonding, or whatever other reason they would be attending Camp Heartland. One pair actually got in Ziva's way. She pushed them out of her path and kept moving.

"That wasn't very nice, Zee-vah." Tony reprimanded her.

"I want to get out of here.... what is it. As soon as possible.... ASAP. Yes, that's it. So those who do not allow me to better ready to be forced." Tony looked at her in astonishment.

"I'd rather be other place too, Zee-vah, but the maze isn't _that _bad."

"No, but being tied to you, on the other foot, is."

"Other hand Ziva, on the other hand." They turned a corner to see an extra bright light on the other side of an especially rigorous-looking obstacle. "Yes, finally.! We get to get out of here." They smiled at each other and started forward.

------------------------------------------------------

McGee was force to cover his ears as Abby shrieked. The lights had just turned off. Lucky for them, they were just about to start a new obstacle. At least they weren't in the middle of one, or they didn't have to find the next. That would have been a nightmare. He chuckled when he noticed Abby wasn't the only one who screamed. Some of the other girls, and one guy, he thought, had also released cries of terror from their vocal chords. One pair who was next to them when the lights went off actually had to be escorted out of the maze, as the female was going into hysterics, being afraid of the dark.

As they started on their next task, Abby started to chatter about what she thought the outcome of the maze would be; who would get out first. "Gibbs and the director are obviously going to get out first. I mean if we don't. It's hard to say, since I don't know how long it took for the others to follow us in. I think we're doing pretty good, considering I don't work in the field and we've hit like, four dead ends. Besides that, this has been pretty fun. Tony and Ziva probably aren't even going to make it out of the maze. They probably found some dark corner and are making out right now..." McGee chose this moment to interrupt her.

"No, Abby, not this again. Just get over them, okay. They'll get together on their own if they really want to."

"Whatever McGee. All I'm doing is giving them a little push in the right direction. And I think ogg-ti-zeh is coming along quite nicely."

"Okay. That's wonderful Abby." They turned a last corner and saw a bright light directly ahead of them. They turned to each other and smiled and took off at a run.

--------------------------------

As Gibbs and Jenny made their way through the maze there was an awkward aura surrounding them. Every obstacle that required even the least bit of physical contact and both their thoughts flashed back to Paris. If this wasn't distracting enough, the lights went out right when they completed a task, and they were forced to try to find their way to the next one without running into anything and without completely losing their sense of direction. At least they had both, at least previously, been field agents, and did not get thrown off too much, but Jenny couldn't help but feel a little sorry for all the other poor souls who were probably going to get lost. Gibbs on the other hand, couldn't have cared less. All he could think about was that the darkness was making it even more difficult to navigate without running into Jenny.

The third time this happened, Jenny turned to him, "Are you running into me on purpose?"

"No," He answered, a little too quickly, "why the heck would I want to do that?"

"And there you go again.... hmmm, why do you think they turned the lights off?"

"I don't know, probably to slow us down." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Now move faster, someone is catching up to us."

"How do you know that?"

"My gut." And they turned a corner to see the bright light at the end of the room.

**NOW BE PATIENT, THERE IS MORE TO BE POSTED IN A FEW HOURS; I JUST NEED TO ADD ON A LITTLE AND EDIT, BUT I FEEL LIKE I OWE YOU LIKE, 50 CHAPTER, SINCE IT'S BEEN SO LONG. READ AND REVIEW ;)**


	9. Chapter 9

**YEAH! YOU HIT 100 REVIEW! CONGRATS MY MOST AMAZING REVIEWERS!!! WELL, I SIAD I WOULD POST, AND HERE IT IS. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN UP LIKE, AN HOUR AGO, BUT I DECIDED TO GO SWIMMING. YUP, AT 1930. R.R.R. WHICH WOULD STAND FOR REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE; BUT HERE IT'S JUST RELAX, READ, REVIEW. ENJOY :)**

The End of the Maze and the Lake

As Tony and Ziva ran down the last path to the finish, they saw Gibbs and Jenny directly in front of them and heard McGee and Abby directly behind.

Tony tried to run faster, but the rope binding him to Ziva was a major impediment. He cursed when he saw Gibbs and Jenny reach the obstacle first, but became quickly confused when he stopped, waiting for them to catch up.

Tony and Ziva reached the point where Gibbs and Jenny were waiting. Ziva tried to move forward, but Tony forced her to stop, knowing Gibbs wanted to tell them something. A few seconds later, Abby and McGee came panting up to them, obviously glad for the chance to rest.

Gibbs looked at the members of his team, "There," he started, "now this is completely fair, just between us. Let's see who finishes this first. Ready..."

"Wait!" Tony shouted before Gibbs gave them the cue to go. He glance at the others. "The usual?" He asked, a huge grin on his face.

Everyone smiled. "The usual." They replied and ran forward all at once to be the first to finish the maze.

The last obstacle was insanely hard. It consisted of parts of all the other obstacles in the maze. There were walls to climb, ditches to cross, beams to balance, and trip wire to navigate under. And to top it all off, and the end there was a fifty meter sprint. The three pairs were neck in neck, tied in every way possible until the sprint. Right before they began the run, Tony tripped, and Gibbs, who was right behind them, tripped over Tony. McGee, who was right behind Gibbs, saw what was happening, and directed Abby around the mess of people, giving them the head start.

"God damn it Tony! Get off of me!" Gibbs yelled and Tony.

"Sorry, boss." Tony stammered, quickly without thinking. "I didn't mean to..."

"Don't apologize DiNozzo..."

"Sign of weakness, got it boss." Tony finished getting up and charging off with Ziva towards the end of the maze, Gibbs and Jenny right on their heels.

It was a good thing Abby and McGee had a head start, as neither of them was very fast, Abby's speed reduced even farther by the fact that she was wearing platforms. With in the last twenty meters, Tony, Ziva, Gibbs, and Jenny caught up with them, and all hell broke loose.

Realizing that 'the usual' was at stake, in was every man, and woman, for his or her self. Tony grabbed onto the back of McGee's shirt, pulling him back and gaining the lead for him and Ziva. Abby, not accepting defeat, tripped Ziva, causing the two of them to fall in a heap. Gibbs and Jenny maneuvered around the pile, but not quickly enough, as Ziva grabbed onto Jenny's leg, tripping her as well. At the same time, Tony stood up as far as he could with Ziva on the ground and tackled McGee, being careful to make sure Abby didn't get hurt as the two of them crashed to the ground. The team began to wrestle, slowly inching forward, completely unaware of the scene they were making.

Soon enough, the fat man who had introduced them to the maze hurried up to them, followed closely by Ralph and Anita, both who had amused expressions on their faces. "I guess we have something else to discuss later today." Anita said, her face now breaking out into a smile. "And now it seems we have reasons to make you see us in pairs."

The team looked up at her and broke apart quickly, groaning. They were about to argue, when the fat man began to babble with himself quietly. The team could only make out a few phrases, "What are you doing.... creating a bad name for the establishment.... fighting in the middle of the maze... don't know how much effort..." This went on for a good few minutes before Ralph put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Tom, they were just being competitive, we'll talk to them about it later." And with that 'Tom' walked off, still mumbling to himself.

Anita and Ralph turned back to the team and looked down at them with amused expressions on their faces. "We'll talk about this later." Anita said laughing, and they walked away.

Gibbs stood up and glared down at his team. "Darn right we'll talk about this later." And he stormed off, too, closely followed by Jenny.

Tony, Ziva, Abby and McGee took one look at each other and burst out laughing. "Oh. My. Gosh. That was priceless!" Abby laughed, her eyes watering from laughing. "WAIT!" she suddenly said, glancing down. "Who won!" Somehow in all the ruckus, they had crossed the line marking the end of the maze/obstacle course.

The four of them looked at each other, glaring. Tony was the first to speak. "Ziva and I, definitely," Tony said confidently. "we are farther across the line."

"So!" McGee defended, "That doesn't prove anything."

And they started arguing amongst themselves, until Ziva came to her senses. "Hey guys, no matter how much fun I am having here, sitting arguing in front of everyone, we only have three hours before our next therapy session and I want to swim, so come on." She said in a tone that made the others scared to go against her. They stood up and walked out, apologizing to the other people for the scene.

The walk to the cabin was filled with light banter. They then changed into bathing suits, put some clothes on over them, and headed over to the lake, the whole time during which Tony was glancing at Ziva, wondering what she was wearing.

As they arrived, there were already many happy campers goofing off. The four of them glanced at each other. None of them really felt like being around people at the moment. "Let's go find somewhere less populated," Tony whispered to his team mate. They nodded in agreement and headed off around the lake until they found a nice little spot where they could still hear the other people, just not see them, as there was a little jetty into the water.

Tony and McGee immediately ripped their shirts off and jumped into the water off the jetty. Abby and Ziva shook their heads and began to strip down to their bathing suits. Tony and McGee came up for air to see Abby and Ziva taking their clothes off. Tony stood up and snuck out of the water behind Ziva, while McGee just stood there staring. Ziva was wearing a one piece bathing suit that fit her perfectly. It was a pickish-peach color and had very little back. Although Tony was originally disappointed it wasn't a two piece, he immediately changed his mind. He snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, "I was hoping for a two piece, but this is almost better," he whispered in her ear.

She thought for a second before deciding to play along. She turned quickly in his arms and put her lips so close to his they were almost touching. "You would like it better off, yes?" She said, her implications clear.

Tony was dying. _Only a few centimeters_, he told himself, _just lean forward. _But he instead he did what he would normally do and joked along back. "When?" he asked, smiling down at her.

"Whenever you want." She continued, loving the effect she was having on him.

Tony was relieved when McGee and Abby called them to join them, as he was about to do something very stupid. He emerged himself once more in the cool water, and watched, entranced, as Ziva ran along the jetty and dove in off the end. They swam around, joking and splashing for a little aver an hour before McGee pointed out that if they wanted to shower before their therapy session, they would probably have to head back. The other three agreed dejectedly, got out and headed back to their cabin. On the way back, Tony couldn't help but put his arm over Ziva's shoulders. She smiled up at him, lifting Tony's spirits even higher than they had been that morning. Maybe this would turn out to be a great day after all.

**THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS ARE GOING TO BE SOULY DEDICATED TO THE NEXT THERAPY SESSION. I WANT TO MAKE IT GOOD. SO THERE IT IS! NOT MUCH ELSE TO SAY, BUT REVIEW. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**THIS IS MY FAVORITE CHAPTER SO FAR. FOR ONE THING IT**

**S CRAZILY LONG, AND FOR ANOTHER.... I THINK YOU'LL SEE WHY AFTER YOU READ IT. THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST HALF OF THE THERAPY SESSION. CHECK ON... PROBABLY SUNDAY, FOR THE NEXT PART. BEFORE I START, SOME OF YOU MAY RECOGNIZE PART OF THE CHAPTER. I WILL EXPLAIN WHY AT THE END. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!!!**

**The Therapy Session**

Gibbs glared at his team as they all walked in late to the therapy session. Abby was holding McGee's hand, chattering unceasingly, while Tony's arm was thrown casually over Ziva's shoulders as he grinned down at her finishing telling her a story and making her throw her head back in laughter. They looked up at him, and were silenced with a look. McGee pulling his hand away from Abby's, and Tony pulling his arm quickly away from Ziva.

Anita and Ralph entered the room before Gibbs could make any comment on rule twelve. McGee and Abby took their spot on their couch, while Tony and Ziva sat next to each other on the foof chair, this time with out all the fuss. The therapist noticed how natural it was for them to divide up in pairs. The same people with the same people. All the time. Even outside therapy, in the maze, they were divided this way.

"Well," Anita started, "we have a lot to talk about from the last session and the events of earlier today..." at this she looked at each member's reaction and made some notes. "But first, it is a good idea to understand the other members of your team and to be able to tell them what you think of them, so I would like to start with you homework assignments. You all did them, right?"

"Oh shit!" said Tony, "Just a sec, I forgot mine." And with that he was out the door, not waiting for permission to leave.

"Ten bucks says he's not coming back." McGee challenged.

Ziva though for a second, "You are off!"

"The right phrase is 'you are _on_, Ziva." McGee corrected her patiently.

"Oh," Ziva said, repeating it in her head, encoding it.

This whole exchange was monitored closely by Anita and Ralph. _Do they bet often? Does it affect their work? Why don't Gibbs or the Director... Jenny, do anything about it?_

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds until finally "We will wait a few minutes for Tony, if he isn't back, we will continue without him and get him to come talk to us later."

"McGee, I am suddenly hoping you win this bet." Ziva stated matter of factly, causing McGee to chuckle.

Much to Ziva's disappointment, Tony came running in panting about a minute and a half later. "Got it." He said, smiling. He flopped back onto the foof chair, unconsciously putting his arm over Ziva's shoulder again in the process, causing the corner's of Ziva's mouth to turn up ever so slightly.

"Okay, now that we're all here, let's begin discussing. As last time we had trouble getting someone to start talking, this time I am going to draw you name at random and that person will start. No excuses."

Ziva froze, "What? We have to read what we wrote!? Word for word, or can we... paraphrase, yes?"

"Well, I don't want you to just read it off, I want you to say what you feel, but yes, I do want you to say what you wrote about."

Tony looked curiously over at Ziva. What was it she didn't want anyone to know? Was it about him? Curiosity got the best of him, and he started leaning over Ziva, trying to see what she wrote. When this didn't work, he resorted to physically trying to take her paper; all it took was a glare for him to stop.

"Well, let's get started." She took a small slip of paper out of a hat and read it off, "I seems like Gibbs will be starting the discussion. Anything you want to share."

"Not really, but I don't think I really have a choice." He normally would have objected and refused to read it, but he just wanted to get out of there. The sooner the better. "Well," He started, obviously awkward. "This whole team are a bunch of lazy dumb asses who never do any work and goof off too much, but they are like family, and I wouldn't trade 'em for anything."

Tony was going to say something, but Ziva elbowed him in the ribs, not wanting him to say anything sarcastic when Gibbs had just opened up to them.

"Anything else?" Ralph asked curiously. "It looks like you filled out a whole page there. Is there more?"

"I summarized." Gibbs said shortly, ending the conversation.

"Okay, let's see. McGee your next. What do you have to say about the team. Anything you especially like, dislike? Anything?"

"Umm... well, I like everyone okay. Ziva and Abby are nice. And Tony is... tolerable."

"Hey!" said Tony indignantly, "I resent that, McProbilicious. I...." But he was cut off by Anita.

"It's McGee's turn to speak." She turned to McGee. "Continue please."

"Umm... Abby's a great friend... and the boss.. erm Gibbs, is a good boss. He keeps Tony from torturing me too much. And that's it I guess."

"Your the author of a best seller and that was the best you got?" Tony pried. "Spill your gut to us McInsecure. I wont say a word."

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs threatened. "Shut up."

"On it boss." He said, slapping himself on the back of the head.

The interactions between the team had Anita and Ralph's heads spinning with questions. "No, Tony's right." Ralph said contemplatively, causing all heads to turn to him in shock, even Tony's, "Although he could have said it in a more.... respectful way, you need to make sure you all open up to us and your team mates completely."

Tony smiled at everyone, "See, you should listen to me more." He bragged.

"Fine," Anita rushed on, not wanting to get distracted again, "McGee, if you're done, Abby is next."

Abby smiled a huge smile and stood up to face the group. "Okay, I loved this homework assignment, so I went a _little_ overboard. To get the whole feel of what I am about to say, I have to read what I wrote. I included Ducky and Jimmy, cuz in my book, they are the team, too. It's kinda long, so get comfortable... Here I go...

_"__Salutations, dear friends!_

_Hello one and all!_

_Native or foreign who've answered the call_

_To work at this place—the best of the best,_

_The wonderful place of N-C-I-S!_

_----_

_I've created a guide_

_To help us a bit_

_C'mon, now. Don't grumble,_

_Be happy—just sit_

_In your chair for a moment_

_And enjoy it, Be glib!_

_As I try and explain us: the team they call 'Gibbs'._

_----_

_Boss man, El Hefe, My Silver-haired Fox,_

_A graduate, quite sadly, from the school of hard knocks._

_Superpowers—he has them!_

_Of that have no doubt._

_If you're trying to hide it—Gibbs is sure to find out!_

_----_

_Dear Tony, senior agent_

_Former OSU jock_

_He's a player, a charmer,_

_But he's really all talk!_

_His job? He'll get to it,_

_Bad guys won't get deferred,_

_Though to a movie or actor_

_They'll soon be referred._

_-----_

_My Timmy is special,_

'_Elflord' and close friend,_

_Problems with technology?_

_McGee is happy to mend._

_Don't be misguided_

_I'm sure you will see,_

_Called teasingly 'Probie'—a great agent is he!_

_----_

_Our Mossad assassin?_

_She's funny and kind_

_Watch out for her driving_

_She's out of her mind!_

_I'll hasten to add this—'cause I value my life,_

_Ziva's trained, honed and ready_

_And she's skilled with a knife._

_-----_

_Dear Ducky will ramble_

_Sadly, it's true_

_But if you're cause of death seeking,_

_He's good at that, too._

_----_

_The 'autopsy gremlin'_

_That's Palmer—sweet smile_

_Though while driving to crime scenes,_

_He's off half a mile._

_-----_

_That leads you to me,_

_A forensic Goth girl,_

_I love Bert and black roses,_

_Stools upon which I can twirl_

_On sexual harassment, the notes I did take,_

_But people, be reasonable!_

_Give me a break!_

_I love to hug everyone—_

_I'm bubbly and kind._

_If I can't hug you out right—I will, in my mind._

_-----_

_Oh! Goodness gracious!_

_I almost forgot!_

_(Without a fresh Caf-Pow, that happens a lot)_

_Our Madame Director is one of a kind._

_Her smile, her beauty, her tactical mind._

_The loud noise that you hear?_

_It's only a fight—_

_Don't worry, don't hide_

_It will turn out all right._

'_Mommy and Daddy' can't stay mad for long_

_The 'kids' won't allow it—_

_Emotions run strong._

_-----_

_That is our team._

_Our own 'motley crew'_

_I love 'em all –what else can I do?"_

And she continued on and on. After she had finished she paused to take a breath. "Just a second, there's more." And she continued on, explaining Gibbs' rules, and then farther to explain 'proverbs'.

_"The last chapter I dedicate_

_A few words to the wise,_

_Read closely! Don't miss them_

_Sage quips in disguise._

_They come from all members_

_Some who are now gone._

_Losing them was hard_

_But life—it goes on._

_While our hearts are still healing_

_I am willing to bet_

_Though we can no longer see them,_

_We will never forget._

_If while shooting at bad guys_

_A bullet hits your vest,_

_Stay down—you've been shot!_

_Take a moment to rest!_

_Jumping up quickly_

_Can lead to much strife_

_Spend a minute on the ground—_

_It could save your life!"_

At this everyone's but Ziva's breath hitched, and pain crossed Tony's face, as he remembered Kate. Ziva noticed and realized she was in the dark on that one. But Abby continued on, pretending there was no change in her audience to finish with:

_"Find the answer to that question--_

_In the words you have read_

_(I hope they're not jumbled_

_Inside of your head)_

_Take action! Be brave!_

_Don't doubt you'll succeed_

_You __**can**__ do it!_

_(97 and ¾ percent guaranteed!)_

_And if my cunning pays off_

_(Into joy I will delve)_

_As the Boss man eliminates_

_Rule number twelve!"_

Abby took a bow and sat down, everyone staring at her in fascination, respect and, in Gibbs' case annoyance.

"Wow..." Started Anita, "That was really... creative." She couldn't really find words to describe what Abby had done. "I mean, that was great. See you guys, poetry is a great way to express feeling. That was awesome Abby." She glanced at her watch. "Hmm... do you think you could excuse me for a second." They all nodded confused.

A few minutes later, Anita returned. "It seems we have run out of time for now, but I still have lots to discuss with you all, so I would appreciate if you would come back in about two hours to finish discussing and so we can plan times for us to meet with you in pairs. Again, Abby, that was a great job. You can go now." And with that there was a sudden scramble for the door.

----------------------------------

The needed two hour break was taken separately by the members of team Gibbs. They wanted to reflect on what was heard so far by the therapists and the other members of the team, and what they themselves had said. Tony was secretly pissed off at Abby for revealing her wish that he date Ziva. _This is going to be so awkward! _He thought to himself, _now the idiots are going to make me and Ziva discuss our _feelings _tomorrow. I am so going to kill Abby!_

Being left to his own thoughts was in ways a good thing and in others a bad thing, depending on the way he looked at it. He couldn't help his thoughts from straying in the direction of Ziva, his imagination running wild with thoughts of them, together, him not having to worry about repressing the... _urges _he has when he is around her. Then he made a decision. It was made in a second so split, he could barely recall making the decision when he reflected upon it later. He stood up and began to walk around the entire campsite with one word on his mind. Ziva.

--------------------------------------------

Exercising was one of the few ways Ziva could release her feelings without having to talk, and not involving some sort of violence. Therefore, it was one of her favorite ways of passing the time. She had decided to swim for the second time that day. Who would think to look for her here. Tony. She sighed, as she saw him approaching the water, stopping and leaning against a tree, just watching her, silently.

Her thoughts had hardly left him since she had exited the therapy room. All she could think about was the idea of her and Tony. _Abby, _she had thought, _why say that now, _here_, in front of everyone? _ She sighed, and got out of the water, knowing she would have to talk to him eventually, so why not now?

Tony gasped as she exited the water. He had mentally been preparing himself for seeing her in the bathing suit again, knowing he would have to resist attacking her then and there, but when she got out of the water, every 'I promise I wont' he had made to himself drained out of his head more quickly and fluidly than water. Apparently she had brought more than one bathing suit, and this one put lingerie to shame. It was white, contrasting with her skin beautifully, and it was small. Oh so very small.

His eyes opened wide, and he could swear that if thoughts were visible, Ziva would be able to see as every coherent thought exited his head via his ears. He swallowed and licked his lips slowly as his mouth suddenly went dry. "Oh my god." He whispered, a little louder then he intended.

Ziva merely smirked at him as she walked up to him, invading his personal space. "Like what you see?" She asked seductively in his ear. His pupils dialated. He tried to speak, but no words were coming out of his mouth, only a barely audible moan and steadily deepening breathing. "Why did you come down here?" She tried again.

This time her forced a reply, "I forgot now..." he said truthfully, leaning in to her slowly. Why had he come down here? "But I'm _very _glad I did. I hope you don't mind too much..."

But he cut off her reply. He could resist any more; he slammed his lips into hers, and was surprised by her almost immediate response. The kiss started out slow. Although Tony had been waiting for days, months, even years, for this moment to come, he didn't want to ruin it before it had really begun. So he kept it slow and steady, unwilling himself to take it to the next level without her consent. He just stood there, wrapping his arms around her body protectively, twisting his hands into her wet hair, molding his mouth to hers, refusing to deepen the kiss, refusing to end it.

Ziva's initial shock was quickly replaced by her desire for more. She welded herself to him, and allowed him to lead in the most passionate kiss she had ever received. She felt the last resisting strain crack as the rope built up from years of sexual tension, denial, and want finally snapped, releasing them to plummet through their self-made pit of desire, lust, and greed. At first she was worried when he refused to deepen the kiss, until she realize he was holding back, not out of lack of want, but out of fear, fear of her rejection. She laughed amusedly in her head at the idea that he was worried that she didn't want more, when at this second she was fighting the urge to take him right there. After a few seconds of hoping he would change his mind about taking the kiss to the next step, she got bored of waiting and took over, taking much more than a small step forward.

Tony was surprised, and... well, turned on, when he felt her take charge of the kiss, deepening it to an almost painful level. She jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his torso without breaking the kiss. A movie reference to The Notebook crossed his mind for a split second before he felt her tongue along his lower lip, begging for entrance. He complied, his initial anxiety that she would hate him for what he was doing fading into nothingness as he fought for dominance. He began to moan softly at the feeling of her body pressed up against his, the smallest movements granting the greatest and most intense amounts of pleasure. Tony longed to rip off the thin cloth that was his shirt that was creating even the slightest didtance between them.

Eventually Ziva gave into him, giving him back power over the kiss. As soon as he realized this, he smiled into her and pushed her back into a tree, closing the already nonexistent space between them.

At some point, Tony and Ziva's lungs told them it was time to break for air. Tony, realizing the talk they would need to have when they finished, attempted to drag the kiss out even long by attaching his mouth to her neck, kissing and sucking at every available piece of reachable skin. Unfortunately for him, this was the worst possible thing to do.

Ziva reacted in a way to give him all access to herself. In an attempt to increase the pleasure, she attempted to throw her head back, to reveal the more sensitive skin of her neck. Being so absorbed in the kiss, she was completely unaware of the fact that he had her pinned to a tree, and as her head flung back, it crashed into the trunk of the tree, abruptly ending their moment.

Hitting her head had brought the two of them falling back down to earth with a resounding crash. Tony stared at her wide eyed, knowing he should ask if she was okay, but unable to form words, still shocked by what had just happened. Ziva looked at him for one moment before the moment of realization struck her, bringing fear onto her normally stoic face. What was she thinking. This was Anthony DiNozzo, infamous player, who would kiss a girl just to see if he could get away with it. And she had just had a full on make out session with him. She stared up at him, terror defining her every move, not knowing if she should run, or pick up where they left off.

Tony could see the terror and indecision in her eyes. _Oh no_! He thought to himself, she thinks that was just me kissing another girl!_ I have say something. But what?! This would be so much easier if I could get my face to move. _And then she began to back away, ever so slowly, one small step at a time, him still trying to make any sound to stop her, until she took off toward the camp and their cabins, silent tears streaming down her face.

_4sweetdreams wrote a fiction__ Oh the Things You Should Know_

_read it and love it, please give it a go._

_her skills as an author are really quite frightening_

_and this story, you'll see, it's very enlightening._

**HEHE. THIS CHAPTER WAS FUN TO WRITE. I LIKE HOW IT TURNED OUT. I HOPE YOU LIKED IT TOO... EVEN THOUGH I HAVE A STRANGE SUSPICION YOU PROBABLY DID. :) IF YOU WANT MORE OF ABBY'S POEM, READ THE FANFICTION **_**OH THE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW**_**, BY 4SWEETDREAMS. IT IS REALLY GOOD AND IT INSPIRED THE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. I ASKED HER IF I COULD USE IT, AND SHE SAID YES. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO SEE THEM, LINKS TO THE PICTURES OF HOW I IMAGINED THE BATHING SUITS ARE ON MY PROFILE. THE BIKINI IS A LITTLE OOC, BUT I HAD TO DO IT FOR TONY'S BENEFIT.**

**REVIEWS=LOVE;LOVE=HAPPINESS;HAPPINESS=UPDATES.**

**DO THE MATH.**


	11. Chapter 11

**HEHE. I'M LATE UPDATING, LIKE ALWAYS, BUT AT LEAST NO MORE A.P. TESTS. I FINISHED THE LAST ONE WEDNESDAY (ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION) I ACED IT. SO EASY. BUT ANYWAY, SO YEAH, I CELEBRATED BY WRITING ANOTHER CHAPTER. YAY. SO I HOPE YOU ALL LIKE IT. :) READ AND REVIEW!**

**DISCLAIMER: WATCHING THE LAST EPISODE, MADE ME WISH EVEN MORE THAT I OWNED NCIS. I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW. I JUST CAN'T.**

Tony could not get any part of his body to move. It was as if time and space had frozen, but only for him. The rest of the world would continue to move on and just leave him behind. A kind of internal clock was ringing, saying his two hours were almost up and he had to get back to the shrink. slowly and surely he got his legs to move. The feel of the wind created by the movement began to uncloud his senses, but that didn't do much for his state of mind. Of anything, it made it worse. _Dinozzo, what were you thinking! You are never going to be able to look at her again._ He began to think about ditching class so he didn't have to see Ziva, but thought better of it. If he bailed, Gibbs would give him hell.

So he made his way into the building and sat down with only seconds to spare. He naturally plopped down on the foof chair, but then realized he didn't think he could bare to have Ziva see him sitting there, then sit somewhere else. Ignoring the eyes from the rest of his teammates, he got up and sat down in one of the individual chairs, dreading when Ziva would show up.

But she didn't. Five minutes passed, then ten minutes, still no Ziva. Anita and Ralph, of course entered the room and looked around, realizing someone was missing. "Where's Ziva?"

Everyone looked at Tony. He tried to say something, but, still not having full control of his vocal chords, could only shrug. Gibbs glared at him with a silent 'what did you do' adding to the awkwardness of the situation.

Ralph coughed and began, "Well, it seems like she is a no show, I guess we will have to continue without her. Hmmm..." he thought "we can't really do much if Ziva isn't here." With this Gibbs glared at Tony again. "Does anyone know where she could be?" For the forth time in five minutes they were looking to Tony for answers.

He finally got his voice back, "Why is everyone looking at me?" He asked, in something just above a whisper.

"That's it! DiNozzo, with me!" Gibbs shouted. "Excuse us for a sec." He said as he Tony out the doors of the building.

"Talk DiNozzo! What the hell did you do?!"

Tony looked at him with as much confidence as he could. "What makes you think it was my fault?"

"So there is something?"

"No."

"TONY!"

"Okay, sort of, but it wasn't all my fault, it was partly hers too..." He started, but one look from Gibbs set him right. "Okay, boss, I know, I'm a complete idiot. I did something stupid and... I don't regret it, but still.... she shouldn't have just run off like that..." By the end of his little rant, he was more talking to himself than his boss.

"Damn it DiNozzo, just tell me what you did!" Tony looked at him for a second. He did not want to tell him anything. He did not want a rule twelve lecture right now, especially with the result of the... but it would be kind of hard to hide it. He was about to give in and spill his guts to Gibbs, when someone walked out of the forest to their sides and began walking to the therapy building.

"Ziva!" Tony called out automatically, then wished he hadn't when she looked over. She was about to turn and walk the other way, but Gibbs stopped her.

"David get over here!" He shouted, then quieter, "DiNozzo, I want this fixed before you walk through those doors again." And with that he walked back to the therapy building, leaving Tony and Ziva alone to talk.

They stood there awkwardly for seconds that seemed like hours, looking everywhere but at each other, until they both started at the same time.

"Tony..."

"Ziva..."

Their eyes caught for a split second before they looked away again. "You go first." Ziva said.

Tony looked at her, not really wanting to say anything, or at least not really knowing what to say. So he asked a question. "Why did you run?"

She continued to look at the ground. "Isn't it obvious?" She shot back.

"No, it's not."

She finally pulled together enough courage to look at his face. "Look, we both know where this conversation is going to end up. We are going to try to talk about what happened, the talk will develop into a fight and we will end by one of us telling the other it was a mistake and then the other will agree, and we will continue to live like nothing happened."

"Ziva, n..."

"So let me save us both the trouble. Tony it was a mistake, we both know it. We should just move on like nothing happened."

Tony's heart shattered. "But it did happen, Zee-vah."

"And we both wish it hadn't. So just forget about it. Let's go." And she began to walk towards the building. Tony looked at her far a second, before running after her.

"Woah, woah, woah. Now just a second," he said, grabbing her arm. He looked deep into her eyes, willing her to see what she was doing to him. "What makes you think I can just forget something like that?"

At this Ziva laughed. "Ha. You seem to forget all your other girls pretty easily."

That was going to far. Now Tony was angry, how could she just assume something like that? "Ziva, you..."

"Don't 'Ziva' me." She cut him off. "You know it's true, so just do us both a favor and at least pretend it never happened.... please."

The please threw Tony off for a second, and the look in her eye startled him. She looked so helpless. "Okay." he agreed, and she started to walk to the shrink again, but he grabbed her arm again, stopping her. "Wait... Ziva I don't want us to be fighting... you are my best friend. I don't want anything to ruin that." This time it was Ziva's turn to be surprised by the look in his eyes; they seemed more sincere than anything he could have said.

"Me too." She replied slofly. _No wonder I kissed him, _she thought, _how could anyone resist him when he looks at them like that._ And with that, he pulled her into a hug. She didn't hug back, but she didn't pull away, and that was good enough for Tony.

"Thanks Zi, let's go back to the others, kay?" He asked, looking down at her. She nodded and let him lead the way back to the building.

----------------------------

When they walked in and sat down in their regular seat, all head turned to them, but before any questions could be asked, Anita quickly started the session, though not missing the slight distance they put between them in the seat. First she directly addressed Tony and Ziva "Okay, when you were outside... talking, we decided how we were going to do this. First, we are going to quickly finish discussing your homework assignment. I wanted to go into more detail on that, but there is too much to cover today, so we will be talking with you individually about what you wrote, tomorrow. After that we we will go over everything that was said yesterday in great detail. We will see where we are time wise after that, before we decide to do more. So let's see... Tony, you are next."

Tony took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. What was he going to say? There was no way he was going to read what was on his paper. That was too personal. Plus there was no way he was going to tell Ziva _that..._ but maybe he could.

He opened his eyes and looked at each individual as he spoke. "Boss... I've never had a great parent. What my dad did, well, that didn't really count as parenting. You are more of a father to me he ever was. Jenny, thanks you so much for everything you have done for me and this team. When I first found out who the new director was, I wasn't so sure if... well, anyway, my point is you're doing a great job. Probie... I know I tease you, but you do all right, don't forget that. Abby, you are also one of the most fun, unique, happy people I have ever met. You are like a little sister to me. " As he was talking he was completely zoning out everyone around him, so he didn't have to see their reactions, but he couldn't miss the expressions on each person's face as he addressed them. He got many surprised looks, and he could have sworn for a second that Gibbs looked... _proud_, but he could have just imagined it.

Last he addressed Ziva. "Zee-vah." He sat there for a second, just staring into her eyes. "Ziva, you are my kick ass ninja partner and best friend, and for that I will love you for ever and ever." He smiled sweetly as he said this last part, so she would think he meant the last part in a less intimate way than he hoped she knew he did, but Ziva was still refusing to look him in the eyes

When he finished talking Anita and Ralph were looking at him, their expression curious and knowing. Now there was one more thing they would have to discuss in the partner sessions the following day.

**HMM... I WAS GOING TO MAKE THIS LONGER, BUT I FEEL LIKE I HAVN'T UPDATED IN LIKE.... WEEKS, HEHE. SO I DECIDED TO PUT IT UP TO MAKE YOU ALL INSANELY HAPPY (WHICH I KNOW YOU ARE)**

**WELP.... I GUESS ALL THAT LEAVES IS FOR YOU TO **_**REVIEW**_** :) LOVE FOREVER.**


	12. Chapter 12

**THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS, YOU TRUELY DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH THEY MEAN TO ME :) ON WITH THE STORY!**

**DISCLAIMER: IF I ACTUALLY OWNES NCIS, I WOULDN'T FEEL THE NEED TO HIT SOMETHING RIGHT NOW. (BECAUSE OF THE LAST EPISODE) BUT SADLY I MUST GO ON WITH IMAGINED TIVA FLUFF. R&R. :)**

_Anita's Notes So Far: I am very interested in the group led by L.J. Gibbs. The connections between the individual members of the group are unusually intense. After today's session (which I believe to be the longest _ever_) I think I am really starting to pinpoint what I need to discuss with the, professionally and personally._

_THE SESSION (In the Anita's p.o.v.):_

"Okay," Ralph restarted the session, "let's start again at the beginning of the session yesterday, and analyze and discuss you're comments. Hmm... let's see, it seems to me yesterday we started with Jenny's reasoning for bringing you all here. Jenny, you said there are "complications" at work, what did you mean by that?"

Jenny thought for a minute, staring at the floor with her chin on her hands, before she answered, "We at NCIS have a dangerous job. Our lives are at risk every moment. Dealing with this is hard at some points, and can cause tension among us, not only field agents, but also those who have to stay at the agency while everyone else is out, possibly risking their lives. Working together so closely causes us to form unusually tight bonds," at this I couldn't help but notice a few eyes dart towards Tony and Ziva, who were deliberately looking anywhere but at each other, "which, at times can add to the complications even more."

"How so?" I prompted, making a note to question Tony and Ziva about their personal relationship the next day in the private sessions.

This time it was Gibbs who answered. "When we are out in the field we can't let that... closeness get in the way of our work. Personal lives can't effect our professional lives."

This confused me for a second. "Wouldn't a relationship that close make the job easier? For two people to be so close they wouldn't have to try to read what the other is thinking, they would just know?"

"Or they would let personal feelings cloud their judgment." Gibbs countered shortly. I could tell by the look he was giving me this was the end of the conversation... for now.

Ralph cleared his throat, and kept us moving along, keeping us the original topic and away from relationships. "What did you mean, Jenny, that your lives are constantly at risk, certainly not _all_ the time..."

"Well, no, but during cases we have to track down people associated with murders, robberies, terroris..." I saw her pause for a split second, glance around, and quickly finish her sentence, "and that is usually dangerous. So no not all the time but..." I could see her try to finish up on this topic as fast as she could, but I couldn't have that. What was with that glance?

"Wait, wait wait, just a second, what was that. You paused for a second when you mentioned terrorists, what happened there?" Dead silence followed. Tony looked at the floor, Ziva began muttering in what sounded to be some kind of Arab language, and everyone suddenly became tense. Nobody said anything. I was worried about prompting them, since something had obviously happened, and I didn't what to say anything inappropriate that would make the, uncomfortably.

The awkward silence continued for a few seconds before Tony finally said one word, "Kate."

There was silence again. Gibbs looked at Tony, but Tony's eyes hadn't moved from the floor, so he hadn't seen the glance. Abby looked like she was about to cry. I finally decided I wouldn't get anything out of them unless I said something, "Anybody want to talk about it?" I prompted.

Finally Jenny spoke up. "Caitlin Todd was a field Agent for two years before I was appointed Director of NCIS. She was a great asset to the team, but was killed by a Humas terrorist we were trying to catch. It was during the investigation of the terrorist that Ziva and I joined NCIS."

I was silent, I didn't really know what to say to that. I finally came up with "I am sorry." But it didn't seem to be sufficient. Ralph, silent for the last few minutes, came to my rescue.

"How did this effect the team? I can tell by your reactions that you were close. And how about Ziva's replacement of Kate effected you professi..."

"Ziva didn't replace Kate." Tony said angrily. Every one looked over at him. He had finally looked up from the ground, to glare at Ralph. "No one ever could."

This shocked me, and apparently the rest of the people in the room as well. Maybe I was wrong about Tony and Ziva's relationship. Maybe Tony was closer to this Kate person, and Ziva was just another girl to him.

Ziva looked over at Tony, shock and hurt in her eyes. Tony felt her gaze and looked over at her, meeting her gaze for the first time that evening. He could tell he had hurt her feelings. His face softened, and he addressed Ziva directly, "Ziva, you did not replace Kate, you replaced an agent. No one could replace Kate, just like now no one could replace you." He gave her a kind of half smile and put an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him, closing the space they had put between themselves when they had first walked in. I noticed how tentatively this was done. Just yesterday he was touching and teasing her without a second thought. What had happened between them?

Well, at least I can go back to my original theory. There is definitely something going on between them. They seemed to be lost in each others eyes. It almost looked like they were staring into each other's souls, seeing thing about each other no one else would ever know. I could feel the temperature of the room shoot up twenty degrees. All sound outside seemed to seace. Everything was about them.

It was like we were in a movie, in one of those romance scenes in which the two main characters see each other for the first time, and everything else in the room gets out of focus, like love at first sight. Except they were so obvious about it it was like we had been sucked into the moment with them.

The responses to this 'moment' captivated my attention. Jenny rolled her eyes, Abby looked like she couldn't have been happier, McGee looked a little lost... no more like he didn't _want_ to know anything about what he was seeing, and Gibbs glared at them until Ziva looked away, ruining the moment.

As quickly as this exchange had taken place it was over. The temperature of the room went back down to a comfortable sixty-eight degrees, and everything came back into focus. Not wanting them to know we had all seen the way they looked at each other Ralph continued the conversation, "Okay, and it was also said yesterday there is tension amongst the members of the team. You all seemed to think it centered around Tony. Let's discuss that assumption some more. McGee, you seemed to have a lot to say on the subject. Why so you think Tony causes so much tension?" Ralph had successfully diverted the attention away from Tony and Ziva to McGee. I was the only one to notice that Ziva was paying a little too much attention to the conversation to be believable, and Tony couldn't seem to pull his eyes away from Ziva's face. It was really cute, I thought. So I jotted down a quick note and returned my attention to the answer to the question.

"Let me change my opinion on that. It's not really tension that he causes... more just distractions... which then leads to tension. So it's more of an indirect thing, really."

"What kind of distractions?"

"Throwing paper balls, making sexual jokes, invading our personal space, making movie references to _everything, _talking, procrastinating, complaining, talking about his personal life... most of which involves girls... pretty much anything but work."

I chuckled nervously, "Well, that's quite some list you got there. Tony, what do you have to say about this."

"I do not agree with the... negative connotation being put on my... activities during the work day. I take pride in my ability to create a light, fun, enjoyable working atmosphere." Tony said, throwing me a huge smile, which I had to admit was quite breathtaking.

"Does anybody else have anything to say on the matter?"

"I agree with McGee." Ziva said, smirking up at Tony. There was a chorus of agreement from the others, except for a disgruntled 'humph' coming from Abby. Everybody turned to stare at her.

"I like Tony just the way he is. You guy's are mean."

Tony grinned largely at Abby, glaring at everyone else. "Thank you _Abby_, I'm glad someone around here appreciates me. It's why I love you the best." I couldn't help but notice McGee glance angrily at Tony for these words. Jealousy? Hmm. There were a lot of unresolved issues here. I couldn't wait to see where it ended.

**HEHE. WELL, I GUESS I'M UPDATING THERE. AND NOW I DON'T HAVE EXCUSES NOT TO WRITE, SINCE IT IS SUMMER (YAY!) SO EXPECT MORE FREQUENT UPDATES... I HOPE. THANKS FOR BEING PATIENT AND REVIEW PLEASE.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: HEY Y'ALL! IT'S SUMMER AND I'M LOVING IT! I WENT TO SIX FLAGS OR YESTERDAY SO I WORTE THIS CHAPTER ON THE RIDE UP. SORRY FOR TAKING FOREVER TO UPDATE. OH, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT REVIEWS FROM LAST CHAPTER ASKING ABOUT THE PRIVATE SESSIONS, WHICH MADE ME HAPPY BECAUSE I AM GOING TO HAVE LOADS OF FUN WRITING THEM, BUT FOR NOW, YOU'LL HAVE TO SETTLE FOR MORE OF THE TEAM THERAPY. HOPE YOU LOVE IT!**

**DISCLAIMER: SEE LAST CHAPTER.**

_Tony grinned largely at Abby, glaring at everyone else. "Thank you Abby, I'm glad someone around here appreciates me. It's why I love you the best." I couldn't help but notice McGee glance angrily at Tony for these words. Jealousy? Hmm. There were a lot of unresolved issues here. I couldn't wait to see where it ended._

I decided to continue our discussion on a more personal note. "There seems to be a lot of finger poiting going on here. I noticed it yesterday, too, and I actually wanted to discuss some of what was siad. For example, you all seemed to have an odd fascination with accusing others of having fascinations about death. Tony, you cliamed that Abby 'fanticises about killing people' and that Ziva is a 'psychopathic murderer. Then you two, Abby and Ziva, agreed... what inticed these claims?"

Abby merely grinned at me, "Like they said, I can kill someone and leave no forensic evidence." It she replied in a tone that gave me the impression that she thought that was totally normal.

"Have you ever thought about how these seemingly "harmless" threats make everyone else feel?"

"I don't do it to be mean. I am a very nice person, they just need to not to make me angry, because I don't like to be angry, I like to be happy and give people hugs and..."

"Right," I said, realizing I would just have to talk to her about it later, "and what about you Ziva?"

"Like I said, I do kill people for a living, as I am an assassin. But I think saying I am psychopathic is going a little bit too far."

You have got to be kidding me. "You... are an assassin?" I began, not really knowing how I should be reacting to this news, "Where does that fit in with all of this?" I went with the most basic reply I could. The kind we were taught during the beginning of our training for this that could be asked in just about any situation.

"I am a Mossad assasssin. My father is the director of Mossad. A few year ago..."

"Three years five months." Tony interrupted. Everyone turned to stare at him. "Just saying..." He tried to cover up his show of attention.

"Continue, Ziva." I prompted to get the attention away from him. It worked, except that Ziva kept giving Tony funny looks the whole time she was talking.

"Ummm... oh yes, a few... three year and five months ago, I was ordered to come to the United States to work for NCIS as a liaison officer. Ever since I have been working for Gibbs as Tony's partner."

"And everyone here was comfortable with this... exchange."

"She's a hell of an agent." Gibbs said. I swear he could say the most things with the fewest words possible.

"Well, I hated her when she first got here." Abby piped up. This actually surprised me. Miss I-love-everybody-goth-girl over here didn't like the assassin. Wonder why?

"Why?"

"I missed Kate. She was my best friend, so I resented Ziva for it."

"You don't know the half of it." I heard Gibbs mumble. Hmm...

"What was that, Gibbs?"

"What? Umm... Nothing."

"Yes it was."

"Nope." And he gave one of those looks I've seen him give a few times to let me know the conversation was over. I made a note to bring it up again later. He seemed to be a man of many secrets. They all did, actually.

Abby gave off one of those I-know-everything-that's-going-on-here-I'm-just-going-to-wait-until-you-ask-to-tell-you vibes. I had the feeling that there was a lot that she wasn't saying here, but that if I asked her personally later she would tell me everything I needed to know, and that my personal session with her was going to be one of the shortest and most informative.

McGee was obviously close to Abby, I was definitely going to have them come together for their private session. He probably knew just as much as Abby about everything that went on, just because she told him everything. I think she had him wrapped around her finger. I don't really know much about him yet; he's giving off a this-is-getting-awkward-I-don't-know-why-I'm-here vibes. But so far I didn't feel that he had kept anything back. He was at least honest.

Tony and Ziva were something. There is no one word to describe them. I also can't describe them individually, they were a package deal. Like peanut butter and jelly, like salt and pepper, like skin and bone. They were designed for each other. You can tell by the way they move. When one shifts position, the other will completely in sync, without even thinking. And they do this funny thing with their eyes, too. Almost like they can have an entire conversation in one look. They definitely knew more about each other and everyone else than they let on.

Director Shepard had a teasing I-know-exactly-what-you're-thinking energy about her. She seemed, like Abby, to know exactly what was going on around her, the only difference with her and Abby was it was her job to know this stuff. She hadn't spoken much, so I didn't know much about her, except that she seemed to have a close bond with this team, and with the way Gibbs was looking at her, I think at one point in time she had a history with this team as well.

Gibbs was.... special. I don't know what was about him, but he had this atmosphere about him that I couldn't really describe. He was strong and confident. I could tell by looking at him that he would be a good leader, yet by the way he wouldn't speak unless he had something important to say gave me the impression that he was not very arrogant about it. Like he knew he was good, he just didn't flaunt it. The strong and silent type, someone to be respected. And the team did respect him, but not like a boss, but like a father. That much was obvious. They were like one big happy family.

Thinking of the family reminded me about the rules imposed by the father of the family. Abby had listed them off in her poem, but I couldn't remember all of the, just a certain few that had stood out. I had to bring them up.

"Gibbs, what about these rules you have for the team?" The reaction to this simple question was astounding. Gibbs glared, Jenny scoffed, McGee sat nervously, Abby grinned, and Tony and Ziva glanced at each other, blushing, and with a somewhat guilty expression on their faces. Hmm.... someone obviously didn't follow these rules too closely.

"Yeah, I've got rules." Gibbs responded.

I pause for him to continue. When he didn't I prompted him. "Why?"

This time his reaction surprised me. His expression went blank for a second, like you see in the movies on characters faces during a flashback. I could barely make out a whisper. "Everybody needs a set of rules they can follow."

Considering the look on the faces of everyone else, I wasn't the only one who was lost here. This was a deep dark Gibbs-secret.

"What was that?" I tried to get more information out of his expression, but in a split second he had snapped out of it.

"The marines. I learned them, and they worked for me, I figure they can work for them." This was something I was definitely going to have to discuss with him later. He was undoubtedly hiding something, but I moved on.

"Some of them in particular caught my attention... such as. Rules four, seven, and twelve." Heh, twelve was unmistakably a rough spot for them. Great facial expressions guys! "Let's start with four. Something about keeping secrets. Does someone want to explain that to me. Abby, you did a good job with the poem. How about you?"

"If you have a secret, don't tell anyone. But if you absolutely _have_ to, tell one other person. Besides that, it's need to know."

"That worries me," I started, "you shouldn't keep secrets from each other. You need to keep open with each other. Tell everyone all your secrets. Talking helps." At this Ziva looked at me funny.

"Do you actually believe that, or is it part of your job that you have to?"

"Of course I believe it. Why wouldn't I? Talking your feelings over with someone helps you come to terms with them, gives you a deeper understanding of yourself, and empowers you to make changes in your life. It is a technique that works."

"I am sorry, but I do not agree with that at all. Talking about feelings nobody wishes to discuss merely brings up negative topics, which leads to fighting and more negative feelings."

At this point all I could think was 'damn this chick had one messed up childhood'. "Ziva, I do not want to get into an argument about this now. But you obviously have some traumatic childhood experience that led you to believe it is not okay to talk." At this she looked angry. "But it is." I continued, "Now if you want we can finish this discussion tomorrow, but right now I want to focus on this rule about keeping secrets. Keeping secrets is a terrible way to form good relationships with people. You all have to learn to communicate what you are thinking with words rather than actions. Gibbs, I would highly suggest you lift that rule, because all it will do is create unnecessary problems for your team." He grunted, but not in consent. It was more of a 'yeah right' than anything. "And what about number seven. When you lie, be specific. Now _lies_ are being encouraged?"

"I'm not encouraging lying." Gibbs said avoiding the question. "I am saying if you're going to don't get caught."

"Look, all this secrecy and lying is not good for team bonding. We are going to need to do something about this." I thought for a minute. "Okay, tomorrow, for the first half of your group session, we are going to be doing a activity instead of the group therapy, I will arrange it and tell you about it tomorrow during the private sessions. Moving on. What about this rule twelve. Never date a coworker, right?"

"Yup."

"Does anyone have a problem with that?" With that Gibbs just glared at them, daring anyone to say they had a problem with that. There were many awkward glances and avoiding looks, but there was a chorus of 'Nope' and then a very awkward silence. That was the most obvious lie I'd ever heard.

"Okay, I've just made a whole speech about how I feel about lying. Are you all _sure_ there is no problem with this rule?" A chorus of 'Yes' was heard, but with the same awkwardness. This was the most confusing family I'd ever met.

Yep, they were a family all right, but after the reactions to that conversation I realized I didn't know how everyone fit into that family? McGee and Tony were obviously like brothers, and Abby and Ziva were the sisters. Gibbs and the director were the parents, but if my brother looked at me the way Tony looks at Ziva, or McGee at Abby, I would probably punch him and put out a restraining order. I wanted to talk to them separately and figure out what _they_ thought of the 'family', because they obviously weren't going to talk in front of each other. And so that was what I decided.

"Do you know what," I said abruptly, ending the silence that had been building since I had gotten lost in thought, "there seems to be a lot going on here that you are all refusing to discuss. Tomorrow morning I want Gibbs and Jenny in at seven, when they are done, McGee and Abby, then Ziva and Tony. Don't be late, the private sessions should take about an hour, have a nice evening."

_Anita's ending notes for the session: I really can't wait for tomorrow. This team completely fascinates me, beyond all of my other clients. I'm going to go against what I normally do, and ask questions that are deliberately posed to make them nervous and awkward, because right now their reactions are more helpful to me than their words... and the most awkward situations have been causing them to give off some pretty unique reactions. I hope they sleep well tonight, because they sure as hell won't tomorrow night._

**A/N: I SAW A 'MCBEAN PARKWAY' YESTERDAY AND THOUGHT OF POOR LITTLE TIMMY. JUST HAD TO SHARE. :D HOPE YOU LIKED IT. AND DON'T FORGET: LIKE TIVA, REVIEWS ARE LOVE.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: OKAY, YOU GUYS ARE OFFICIALLY AMAZING. 28 REVIEWS FOR LAST CHAPTER. I THINKS THAT'S A RECORD. I'VE BEEN IN ALASKA FOR THE LAST WEEK, SO I WROTE TWO OR THREE HAND WRITTEN CHAPTERS, (I'M NOT SURE, IT DEPENDS HOW LONG THEY ARE WHEN I TYPE THEM) SO ALL I HAVE TO DO IS TYPE. THIS IS ONE OF THEM. IF IT'S A LITTLE OFF, IT'S BECAUSE I WROTE IT ON AN AIRPLANE, 38,000 FEET IN THE AIR. I WAS A LITTLE DISTRACTED. (I LOVE FLYING)**

**OH, AND I MUST APOLOGIZE AHEAD OF TIME, I WAS SUFFERING FROM TIVA WITHDRAWAL, SINCE I HAD NO INTERNET OR TELEVISION FOR A WEEK. SO BOTH OF MY NEXT CHAPTERS ARE TIVA FLUFF. **

**RIGHT NOW I'M SORT OF WORKING ON THE JIBBS PRIVATE SESSION, BUT I'M LACKING INSPIRATION. ANY IDEAS? THEY WILL LEAD TO MORE UPDATES. READ AND REVIEW!**

**Fluff**

For the remainder of the evening a mutual silence was agreed upon concerning the therapy session. Tony would occasionally try to force awkward conversation, but was only met with glares, and once a painful punch from Ziva. They all needed silence to think and worry about what they wanted to say tomorrow, and even more worried about what they were going to be _forced_ to say tomorrow. So far, Anita had been doing more talking than they had been expecting. Ralph had been remaining relatively silent, but had been watching their actions and reactions intently, therefore probably noticing a lot about them, including how they worked together. (The only one oblivious to this was Tony, who was so focused on Ziva the whole time wasn't noticing much else around him.

They all walked slowly back to the cabin, not sure of what to do. They had about an hour to kill before they had to make their way up to the gym.

None of them really felt like working out, though, as the were already too mentally exhausted. Although they hadn't talked much, they felt like somebody had attacked their brains and felt highly violated.

So they all kept pretty much to themselves for the next hour. Sitting in the same room, but not speaking. They needed time to relax and clear their heads. Even Tony got the hint and shut up.

Gibbs left, not giving a hint as to where he was going. Jenny lay on the bed on top of the covers, knees up, almost looking asleep, but deep in concentration. McGee was furiously scribbling words down in a notebook, while Abby stole a page out of the notebook and began to doodle. Ziva was also lying down in bed, in the same position as Jenny, but was reading. Tony was sitting on the edge of the bed, tracing patterns up and down Ziva's legs with his fingers, watching her read, deep in thought.

What the hell was he going to tell the shrinks tomorrow? He was going to have to discuss the relationship between him and Ziva, and he didn't know what to say. He couldn't lie. His eyes would give him away. He wasn't completely oblivious to the way he looked at her. But he didn't want to tell the truth. He wasn't even completely sure what the truth was anymore. Just partners? No. They were best friends. The only problem was were they _more_ than friends? That was what he couldn't answer.

When Gibbs reentered the room about half an hour later, no one had moved. He frowned at the interactions going on between the members of his team. Abby and McGee were sitting next to each other, writing and drawing, Abby occasionally stealing McGee's eraser to fix a mistake.

He was never really sure where their relationship stood, but he knew for a fact that no matter what it was, at work they kept it strictly professional. What they did outside of work he didn't know for sure and didn't need or want to know about, so he didn't ask or care.

Tony and Ziva were a different matter. He knew something had happened between them earlier that day. He didn't know exactly what, and he wouldn't care besides the fact that they hadn't handled it very well. He had a feeling that if anything started, it would be far from professional. In fact he thought it would be very very personal.

He watched them for a second, just observing their reactions to each other. The intensity with which Tony was watching Ziva worried him. Tony was so absorbed with her every movement, he hadn't even noticed Gibbs walk in, or he would have done the thing where he abruptly jumps away and pretends like nothing was happening.

It was at this moment that Gibbs realized something about his senior field agent. Tony was actually falling for Ziva. He didn't think Tony was actually in _love_ with her. Not yet. Emotions that strong take time to grow, but he was most definitely falling.

Shit. This was going to be bad. Tony was known for jumping into things quickly with women, and neither him nor Ziva was ready for that kind of relationship or commitment. Well... maybe Ziva was, but definitely not Tony. He was still healing from Jeanne.

Gibbs looked at the agent again. That look was so darn _intense_. Maybe, just maybe, if Tony didn't try to rush into things, it might work, as they clearly both cared for each other.

But that brought him back to the fact that something had happened earlier. But what? What ever it was it had thoroughly pissed off Ziva. Hopefully nothing too bad... He decided not to worry about it. What ever it was would be cleared in the private session tomorrow, and he wasn't going to worry about Tony's when he still had his own to worry about.

He cleared his throat to reveal his presence, and was rewarded with the expected reaction. Tony jumped, and turned around, quickly recoiling his hand from Ziva's leg, then began stumbling over words, trying to distract his boss from the situation, pretending nothing had been happening.

"Heh. Hey, boss. Coffee run? Hmmmm.... come to think of it I haven't seen you with coffee except in the morning when they have it for breakfast. Actually I'm surprised you even drink it, since you're usually so picky about the taste. Heh, suffering from withdrawal?"

"DiNozzo?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"Shut up."

"Shutting up, boss."

Ziva had looked up from her book smiling at the interaction. She missed the comfort provided by the contact from Tony's hand, and wished Gibbs hadn't walked in and stopped him.

She had noticed when Gibbs had entered the room, and had been pleasantly surprised when Tony hadn't immediately stopped, and then realized he hadn't even detect Gibbs enter the room.

It was then that she noticed him watching her. She didn't usually enjoy being stared at. Sure she loved attention from men, Tony especially, but staring usually unnerved her. But the way he was staring at her made her feel wanted... desired even. She liked the feeling.

Her thoughts drifted back to the kiss, causing her to frown slightly. She didn't know what to think of what had happened, and she definitely wished she had reacted differently, wanting yet not wanting to know what he would have done next. She had taken the safe way out, not giving him the chance to show he cared, but also not giving him the chance to throw it back in her face and break her heart.

Maybe she would learn more during the private sessions the next day. Maybe she had a reason to look forward to tomorrow. She would just have to make sure the conversation revolved around him. She smiled to herself, looked down at her book and kept reading.

Tony didn't miss Ziva watching him for a few seconds before turning back to her book. He looked up and tried to catch her eye, but she had already looked away.

He looked into her eyes thinking about the kiss. Why had she run off? Was he really that bad a kisser? Heh. The idea was laughable. No, it must have been something else. Maybe she didn't feel the same way? But she had kissed him back, so that wouldn't make any sense either. Ugg. Why didn't women have to be so complicated? Why couldn't she have just stayed put? It would have made his life so much easier.

While he had been thinking he had unconsciously began to draw on her leg again, this time with a different pattern that traveled farther up her leg. When he became aware of what he was doing, he noticed she would tighten her muscles and shiver ever so slightly. Tony chuckled to himself. Heh. A sensitive spot.

After enjoying her reaction for a few more minutes, he started to graze his thumb over the spot, hopping for a better reaction. He smiled slightly as she felt her freeze. He looked up at her the find her looking at him, and their eyes met.

In that split second Tony thought of a million thing he wanted to say to her. That second was all he needed to make a quick dicision he would probably later regret.

He leaned a little closer to her a whispered so quietly she could barely hear him, "Ziva, we need to talk."

**HEHE. I'M ENDING IT THERE FOR NOW, BECAUSE I'M TIRED AND WANNA GO TO BED. HOPE YOU ALL LIKE IT. REVIEW PLEASE. (OH, AND DON'T FORGET I HAVE THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS WRITTEN ALREADY, SO EXPECT AN UPDATE IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS)**

**OKAY, WHEN I FOUNF THIS I STARTED CRACKING UP LAUGHING: **Logo for Tiva, a California-based software development start-up whose feature products will be a Tour Finance Management System for the Music Industry, VOIP, and Networking applications. Tiva to launch in the near future.

**RANDOM FACT #1: OCTOPUS TASTES GOOD.**

**RANDOM FACT #2: 7 YEAR OLD KIDS HAVE SO MUCH ENERGY I WOULD CONSIDER IT UNHEALTHY.**

**RANDOM FACT #3: ALASKA IS VERY COLD.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: HEY. WHEN I FIRST STARTED TYPING THIS CHAPTER, I WAS GOING TO TYPE ABOUT SIX PAGES, THEN FIND A GOOD PLACE TO STOP. THEN I TURNED ON THE RADIO AND HEARD SOME TERRIBLE NEWS. MICHAEL JACKSON DIED AT ABOUT 2:00 TODAY. (ON THE WEST COAST) SO I GOT ALL DEPRESSED AND DECIDED TO TYPE AWAY THE BAD NEWS. SO HERE IT IS. A REALLY REALLY REALLY LONG CHAPTER. TEN PAGES OF WRITING. HOPE YOU LIKE IT. R&R.**

**DISCLAIMER: NOT MINE.**

**More Fluff**

_He leaned a little closer to her a whispered so quietly she could barely hear him, "Ziva, we need to talk."_

Ziva's whole body froze. "Not now."

But Tony's mind was made, "Yes. Now." He grabbed her book and slammed it shut.

"Hey! You lost my place."

"Ziva, now."

Ziva looked into his eyes, her own sad and worried. "No. Tony, don't do this." He looked back at her a hurt expression on his face.

"Ziva..." He said softly, but was cut off when Gibbs decided it was time to save Ziva. He knew what Tony was thinking. It was written all over his face, and they both had to be ready to have _that_ conversation. It was obvious she wasn't.

"Time to go, everybody up." Tony looked startled, having completely forgotten there were other people in the room. He looked around at them as if seeing them for the first time.

Abby looked like her birthday had come early, McGee feigned a look of innocence, Jenny looked mildly amused and smirked, Gibbs looked furious.

Uh oh, Tony thought, had he said anything to give away what had happened in what he had said. He thought for a second, panicking, then relaxed. He had only said he wanted to talk to her. There was nothing wrong with that. Why wouldn't she? Did she know what he was going to say? Was he really _that_ obvious?

They all got up and walked over to the gym, changed, and went out to wait for instructions.

A few minutes later Ginger and Willie walked out and greeted them, "Hello again. I hope you have all had a very enlightening day and are still having a wonderful experience." At this nervous glances were exchanged, but there was a mumbled assent none-the-less.

"Well," Ginger said in a much too cheery 'Good-morning America' voice, "Let's get started. We will warm up first, like we did yesterday, with a half-hour jog on the treadmills."

"And I still do not see the tip of running in the same spot for half an hour." Ziva countered.

"Point, Zee-vah, not tip. POINT." She glared at him, while everyone rolled their eyes at the pair.

They walked over the the treadmills and began to run. The first half hour was relatively easy for them. They ran in complete silence, even Tony at a loss for things to say; so the only sound was the humming of the mills. By the end of the run, Ziva had easily outdistanced them, and contrary to her argument before, she did feel better after running in place, even if she would never admit it.

The mood slowly started to lighten as they moved on to lifting weights as Tony started to tease McGee about his physique. Although McGee was mildly annoyed with Tony's antiques, he was also mildly gracious the awkwardness of the situation was lifting, so he took the jibes with little fuss.

As Ginger and Willie watched the team with amusement the began to notice some things about them. They noticed how much fun McGee and Abby had together, and how Gibbs would try to bench more and more weight, trying to show off to Jenny, who would smirk and roll her eyes in return, but obviously enjoyed the effort, and how Tony would continuously watch Ziva, who would pretend to be oblivious to his show of affection, but they caught her smiling about it a few times.

The hour passed quickly ending with some stretching and a ten minute cool down jog. And with that the team went to eat.

Throughout dinner, Tony was unusually quiet and polite, sitting and eating, staring at the table in front of him, occasionally glancing up at Ziva. He knew he was falling in love with her. It wasn't something he had consciously done, it had just... happened. After only finishing half of his food, he got up and walked out, wanting to be alone with his thoughts, Ziva watching him curiously as he walked out of the room.

---------------------------

Going to bed that night was about as awkward as anyone could imagine. Well.... at least it was for Tony and Ziva. They crawled into bed as far away as possible from each other, Tony facing one direction, Ziva the other.

They lay in bed for hours, neither finding sleep easy to find. But, exhausted from the days activities, Tony did eventually drift off to a light troubled sleep.

Of course, now Tony's snoring made it even more impossible for Ziva to sleep. Needing to clear her head, she slipped out of the bed and out to the gym. She picked the lock, changed, then gave a light beating to one of the punching bags.

Forty five minutes later, she slowly made her way back to the cabins, the late, or early, hour finally catching up to her.

She entered the room to see everyone sleeping. McGee and Abby were cuddled together, and Jenny and Gibbs were too close for comfort. Although she didn't usually think things like this, they all really did look adorable together.

Her gaze then drifted to Tony and she sighed. Minus the snoring, he looked very innocent in his sleep. She laughed silently, how... ironic is that, as when he is awake he is anything but innocent. She smiled and took a minute just to watch him. She sighed again, almost wishing she had agreed to have that conversation earlier, before the workout. Maybe then things would be different between them. Better different.

She shook her head at herself. She had been making many decisions she regretted over the past few days, and they all revolved around Tony. First running off on him, now this. She was usually good at just moving on. What was it about her partner that was making her act like this. He mind began to wander, thinking about Tony and... **CENSORED**

Ziva shook her head and Gibbs-slapped herself. She should NOT be having thoughts like that about her partner. She quickly looked away from him and went to the shower, so she could rinse off before getting back into bed.

She undressed and stepped into a boiling hot shower letting the heat relax and massage her muscles, but it soon began to drain her of all remaining energy, so she turned off the water and wrapped herself in a towel before stepping out into the now steamy bathroom.

Tony woke up to the sound of nothing except the gentle breathing of his teammates.

"Zee-vah?" he whispered, turning over to find the cause of the missing snoring. And he found it, she wasn't there.

He sat up in bed, scanning the room, panicking, then noticed the light under the door of the girl's bathroom. He then began to pick up on the faint sound of her moving around, and sighed in relief.

He waited a few minutes expecting her to come out, and was surprised when she didn't. Confused, and beginning to worry again, he got up and knocked on the bathroom door to see if she was okay.

"Zee-vah?" He asked again, "You okay?" He heard her freeze. She opened up the door, causing a wave of steam to exit and engulf Tony. But Tony didn't even notice the steam. Ziva was standing there, brushing her hair, wearing nothing but a towel. He couldn't help him self. His eyes began to wander along her bare shoulders and long legs. He forced himself to suppress a moan. She had to be doing this on purpose. He tried to force himself to look away, but couldn't.

"I was showering." Her voice brought him back to his senses, and his eyes jumped back up to her face.

"I can see that. At two in the morning?"

"It is two seventeen." He rolled his eyes, so she continued. "I was working out."

"Zee-vah, it is two. What were you doing in the gym."

"Clearing my head."

"From what?" She paused, not sure what to say, until he decided he didn't really care at the moment. "Never mind, just come back to bed, you're going to be exhausted tomorrow."

Ziva merely rolled her eyes and closed the door. Tony didn't move. He waited outside until she exited a couple of minutes later. When she walked out his breath hitched. She was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of underwear. That was it. This time he couldn't suppress the small moan that escaped his throat, luckily Ziva didn't hear him. She was definitely doing this on purpose.

He forced himself to walk at a normal, slow pace back to the bed and crawl up next to her. But this time he didn't face away from her. He couldn't help but get up right next to her and put his arm around her waist and pull her up against his body, burying his face in her soft, damp hair.

When she felt Tony pull her close, at first she stiffened, until she realized how comfortable and safe she felt in his arms, so instead of pushing him away and immobilizing him like her instincts told her to, she rolled over to face him, lying her head against his chest.

Tony was pleasantly surprised by her reaction, but didn't let it show. Instead he only smiled into her hair and pulled her closer to him, finally falling into a deep peaceful sleep with her in his arms.

------------------------------

The next morning Tony woke up, his face centimeters away from Ziva's. She was still asleep, which didn't surprise him considering how late she had stayed up, and snoring gently.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, Ziva's legs had become intertwined with his, molding them together and making it impossible for Tony to move without waking her, but at the moment, that was quite alright with him. Lucky for them, he couldn't hear any movement anywhere else in the room, meaning no one else was awake and they wouldn't get in trouble for sleeping like that. He couldn't help but feel like a teenager who had snuck his girlfriend in through the window, and didn't want to be caught with her.

But instead of worrying about it, he took the time to watch Ziva sleep, loving the look of childlike innocence on her face as she slept. He couldn't help but give in to what he had been tempted to do for the whole day, and leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth, then pulled away slowly, wanting nothing more than for her to wake up and kiss him back.

Half of that wish came true. She opened her eyes, now awake, but instead of crashing her lips to his, she jumped slightly, startled to find him so close.

As soon as soon as he was sure she had gotten over the initial shock, he pulled her back to him and kissed her forehead. "Mmmm. Morning Sweetcheeks."

Her heart fluttered at the contact. She didn't respond, but smiled into his shirt. They just lay there, holding each other and basking in each other's warmth.

But of course, soon enough their moment was ruined when they heard movement coming from the other beds. Tony closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, savoring the last moments before he knew he would have to pull away.

When he heard someone begin to sit up, he leaned up and kissed her temple before pulling away so they would not get in trouble from the boss man.

At first Ziva was resistant to let him pull away, consequences be damned. She was comfortable. But then the mossad side of her thought about it logically and decided she probably should. So she kissed his chest and reluctantly reciprocated his movement.

When they pulled back they stared into each other's eyes, silently communicating, their looks mirroring each others, both saying the same thing: "I'm falling for you."

Ziva blushed and turned away from him a small small smile on her face. Tony on the other hand, had a huge grin plastered on his. This was the second time he had gotten her to blush in a week. It was a new record! Not that he was keeping track or anything...

Now there was obvious movement sounding throughout the room, and all tony could do was lay there on the bed, contemplating what he was going to do now. He and Ziva needed to talk. He didn't care how or when, (he hoped sooner rather than later) but it had to happen.

Soon enough he looked at the clock and saw it was about his normal waking hour, so he pretended to wake up. He sat up, stretched, yawned, and turned to Ziva, "Wake up, Zee-vah."

She groaned. "Go away." Causing him to laugh.

"Come one Ziva, time to wake up Sweetcheeks."

Ziva rolled over and hit him where it hurts and told him to shut up, and that they could sleep in, they had no where to be for a few hours.

"Breakfast." He said sadly. She opened her eyes a little and glared at him. "Okay, no breakfast for me today." He said obediently, causing her to close her eyes again and smile.

And so Tony sat there in bed playing with Ziva's hair as she continued to sleep.

Gibbs and Jenny had woken up and quickly gone to shower and eat so they could make it on time to their therapy session. Right before they left, Gibbs shot a 'Don't You Dare' glare at Tony, who grinned back, then continued to play with Ziva's hair, at this point not really caring what his boss thought.

Actually this wasn't completely true. Tony did want his boss's approval, but he wasn't going to give up on Ziva just because Gibbs didn't want them together.

About fifteen minutes after they left to the therapy session, McGee and Abby went to eat, Abby smiling the whole way out.

The second they had left, Ziva sat up in bed next to Tony and leaned against him, closing her eyes again.

"Good morning my little hairy butt," she greeted, yawning.

Tony grinned down at her and kissed her forehead. "Hey."

They were then quiet for a few minutes, enjoying each others company, until Tony broke the silence.

"Zee-vah?"

"Yeah?"

He paused. "I really do want to talk... whenever you're ready."

Ziva knew exactly what he wanted to talk about, and it started with an 'f' and ended with a 'eelings'. She thought for a minute. They would have to have this talk sooner or later, and she would prefer it _not_ to be in the therapy session, in front of two almost strangers. She sighed.

"Talk." She stated simply.

This surprised Tony. He was expecting to be in physical pain by now, but he wasn't going to complain, so he started to talk.

"I kissed you yesterday...." he began uncertainly, "and you kissed back." He really didn't know where this was going yet. He took a deep breath and continued. "Zee-vah... I don't know what you were thinking at the time and I don't know what I was thinking at the time." This was _not _coming out right. He could tell by the stoic look on her face, so he raced to correct himself. "Wait, just listen. You said it was a mistake. And it was in a certain sense. It was bad timing on my part. I'm... hoping that's why you ran...." He paused in hopes for confirmation.

She looked away from him. "I was scared." She confessed. "I thought that you.... I am sorry."

"_I_ am sorry, Zee-vah. I should have waited until I knew were both ready for that. Wait..." He paused again, worried, "This isn't totally one sided, is it? You..." he coughed nervously. "You feel it too?"

Ziva was having trouble forming words. She wasn't used to Tony being so open about his feeling. His personal life? Yes. His feelings? No. So she gave him a nod and a small smile, and blushed again, earning a huge smile from Tony.

"Ziva, I want something to happen here. I don't know what yet, but I _need_ something. We can take this at your speed. Do you think we're ready for a... a... re.. rela... relationship.'

Ziva rolled her eyes, annoyed at how difficult is was for him to say that word, yet also shocked she heard it come out of his mouth. He obviously wasn't ready for anything big.

"Tony I want this, too, but I do not believe you are ready to commit. I do not want to share."

"Zee-vah right now I see you and only you."

"That is because we are the only two in the room."

Tony didn't bother to explain. "Please Ziva? One chance, that's all I need. Please?"

Ziva looked at him for a second, judging the truthfulness of his words. "Fine, Tony. Although I think I will probably regret it, I want to give _us_ a try." She pause, looking up into his eyes for a second. She smiled mischievously, "I also want to try...." And with that she began to lean towards, but stopped, her mouth centimeters from his. "But only if you are ready."

Tony smiled happily at her, "This is one thing I know I can handle." And with that he closed the remaining distance between them, kissing her for the second time in two days.

This was different though. This kiss was slower and deeper. It had much more meaning than either could ever think was possible in a single kiss. This kiss was a promise, a commitment, a symbol of... something. Was it love?

Tony brought his hand up and cupped her face, bringing her slightly closer to him. But the kiss didn't deepen. It couldn't. If it did their bodies, which were already begging them to give into their desires, would take over, and that wouldn't be good for either of them.

Eventually they had to break away for air. Tony closed his eyes and rested his forehead against Ziva's. He then began to let his hands drift, down her neck to her shoulders, then down her arms to her waist. His hands then worked their way under her shirt, ever so slowly, testing for sensitive spots.

Whenever he found one, he would be rewarded with a tiny shiver and smile, which would engender the same response from him.

He was leaning in to kiss her again when they heard footsteps outside. Abby and McGee were back from breakfast and about to enter the cabin.

Tony groaned, but realized they had to stop. He quickly grabbed the back of her head and kissed her one last time before jumping out of bed and running to the bathroom for what he expected was going to be a very cold shower.

**A/N: HEHE. I WROTE MOST OF THIS THIS STARTING AT ABOUT ONE IN THE MORNING FROM KODIAK TO ANCHORAGE. CONSIDERING THE EARLY HOUR, I'M HAPPY WITH HOW IT CAME OUT.**

**NOW, BEFORE YOU REVIEW, LET'S HAVE A MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR MICHAEL JACKSON. (THE SINGER, NOT THE FRESHMAN ENGLISH TEACHER AT MY SCHOOL)**

**LAST COMMENT: I ****NEED**** INSPIRATION FOR THE JIBBS IN THE NEXT CHAPTER. I STILL CAN'T GET IT TO COME OUT WELL. IF I DON'T GET INPUT, IT MIGHT BE A WHILE BEFORE YOU SEE THE NEXT CHAPTER. SO REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW.**


	16. Chapter 16

**I'M SO SOOOOOO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE. I'M NOT GONNA USE THE EXCUSE "I'M BUSY" CAUSE IT'S NOT COMPLETELY TRUE. LIKE I HAVE SAID MANY TIMES, THIS CHAPTER WAS IMPOSSIBLY HARD TO WRITE. I DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO WRITE JIBBS. TO ME THEY ARE ONE OF THE MORE COMPLICATED COUPLES, BECAUSE THEY HAVE A HISTORY. ALONGSIDE ALL THE NORMAL AMAZING REVIEWS I GET, I WANT TO ESPECIALLY THANK DIZZY-IN-THE-IZZY AND NCISgirl1527 FOR THEIR AMAZING HELP ON THIS CHAPTER. I COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU. BUT IT'S UP NOW, AND IT'S LONG, AND I THINK ONE OF MY BETTER CHAPTERS. SO YOU DON'T ALL HATE ME, RIGHT? RIGHT? HERE WE GO. **

**Jibbs**

He didn't want to be here. Who would want to be here? This should be used as a torture technique... or interrogation, but what was the difference, really.

He and Jenny sat down in their normal spot, waiting for the dreaded moments in which the Prince and Princess of Darkness would enter the room. And then he heard it, the slow, heavy footsteps coming from the other side of the door. He watched as the knob slowly turned, and the door creaked open to reveal the hideous creatures waiting on the other side.

Gibbs sighed, wanting this to be over and done with. Therapists were almost as bad as lawyers. Almost.

"Well, it's good to see you up and about this early." Anita said cheerily, greeting them as she walked in. "I hope you slept well last night."

"Very well, thank you." Replied Jenny in her overly sweet 'I'm gonna pretend to like you because I have a reputation to protect but I really hate your guts' manner.

Not hearing the undertone beneath the statement, Anita smiled, hoping she would finally have a good morning. Usually morning sessions were the worst, a consequence of the fact that most people like to sleep.

"Okay, I'm assuming you both just want to get this over with..."

"Don't even wanna be here in the first place." Gibbs grumbled into his freshly brewed coffee.

Anita laughed nervously, loosing her confidence in the fact that this would be a good morning. Maybe she shouldn't be so quick to judge with these two... she cleared her throat. "Heh heh. Anyway, as I was saying we're going to try to get this over with as quickly as possible, so we're gonna skip all the small talk and cut right to the chase, so let's start with what we know. Jenny, you are his boss," At this Gibbs rolled his eyes and looked away from everyone, "but he seems to have been working for the agency longer, why is that?"

"I handle politicians more... civilly than him," Jenny started smirking, "and he is very good at what he does. To put him anywhere else would be a crime."

"You both seem to.... for want of a better term, like each other. Hmm... From my observations you seem to be closer than what I would expect from a normal boss/subordinant relationship. Is there a reason for that?"

"Nope." Gibbs replied shortly.

"That was an abnormally... quick response. You sure?" He just glared at her. This was going to be a difficult one, so she turned to the cooperative one of the two and tried to look cute, "Jenny?" She tried pleadingly.

"We have... _worked_ together before. We were partners many years ago, like Tony and Ziva now."

"_Exactly_ like Tony and Ziva?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they seem to be... close, you know? Partners in more than one sense."

At this Gibbs looked angry, "They are partners and only partners. They know better than to have a relationship with someone they work with, other than a professional one. It just complicates things."

At this Anita and Ralph glanced at each other and smirked, "Well that brings up some interesting questions like, 'What was it that brought you to believe it? Personal experience?'," Ralph smiled mischievously, "but I have a feeling the answers to those questions will lead us back to our original one: Why is it that you seem to have such a close relationship?"

Gibbs looked up to the ceiling and sighed, then glanced to Jenny for her to save them. He was NOT talking about their... past. No way.

Jenny rolled her eyes at him, "We can't tell them _that_..." She whispered so that the therapists couldn't hear.

"I know _we_ can't. You can." He whispered back.

"No, that isn't...."

"They'll find out eventually."

"You don't know that. They can't read minds."

"Close enough."

At this Jenny smiled slyly at him, "You're intimidated by them."

"I am not." Gibbs denied. "I don't get intimidated."

"I intimidate you."

"You do not."

"HEY!!!" They looked up to see Ralph and Anita smirking at them again, "The point of 'therapy' is for you to talk to the 'therapists'. No matter how cliché this is, it does help. What's going on here?" Anita scolded.

Ralph realized they weren't going to talk and were now giving each other the cold shoulder, so he cut in to the awkward silence, "So you two used to be partners. Judging by your reactions to each other and what you are saying, and your bickering, you were, and still are, close. There is also a part of your... past that you don't want to talk about, but now you've got me curious. What is it." His rant was met with more silence. "Okay, Gibbs. You haven't been talking a lot these last few days. You. Talk. Now."

Gibbs almost looked scared. Almost. He was a marine, and that was an order, so he cleared his throat and started talking, "Well," he coughed nervously, "We went on a mission in Paris together... and, ummm.. we got... close." He tired avoiding the main point of why they were having the and Ralph turned to Jenny.

She rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that morning and got right to the point, "We made love."

Anita coughed awkwardly, "Well, that is quote a choice of words. Saying 'We made love' has a very different connotation than 'We had sex'. It implies deeper meaning and feelings."

"No it doesn't." Gibbs argued hurriedly, "It's the same thing said in different ways."

"Not to a woman, it's not."

"Yes it is."

"No, sex is a form of physical pleasure, love making is more committing and emotional. It insinuates the idea that there is more to it than just the physical aspect." By this point Jenny and Gibbs were looking everywhere but at each other, but she kept going, "Does this mean there was meaning to the sex? Did you have deeper feeling for each other? Were you in love?"

You could have heard a pin drop. Gibbs and Jenny's eyes wandered the ceiling, until their eyes accidently met and they began to laugh nervously until it died away into more silence.

"Well..." Ralph prompted.

"Well," Jenny stared, "in the technical definition of the term love is the sense of euphoria created by the hypothalamus when one persons subconscious is attracted to another person's subconscious. In that sense, yes we were."

"You know what I meant."

"Yes, I did."

At this Anita glared at her, annoyed that she was refusing to answer the question. Yeah, it was part of her job to be patient, but come on, there was nothing messed up about these people, except maybe the fact that they were all a little emotionally disturbed, but then again who wasn't? She took a deep breath. "Okay, did you feel any sort of non sexual attraction towards each other?" Silence. "Okay, let's try again... ummmm, have you ever considered getting married?

At this Jenny snorted in laughter. She couldn't help it, it just slipped out.

Ralph smiled in relief, "Ahhh, see! Now we have something to work with here. Why would you think that is so funny."

Gibbs' eyes widened, and she looked over at Jenny and begged with his eyes for her to keep quiet, but Jenny couldn't miss this opportunity to put all the attention away from her on to Gibbs. "You would have to ask Jethro about that one." She said, a guilty smile on her face.

Gibbs' eyes widened. He did not want to have this conversation anytime, but most definitely not in front of the therapists. He looked at Jenny with a look of pure loathing. This was a betrayal. How could she? Obviously very easily. Then again if he was put in that situation, he probably would have done the same thing to her, but still...

"Why did she turn this over to you?" Anita asked curiously.

Gibbs looked at the ceiling... again. He swore if moments like these kept being brought up he would have the ceiling memorized panel for panel by the end of the hour, "I haven't had the best track record with women."

"Ahh, I see, how many divorces?"

"Three."

"You've been married _three_ times?"

Gibbs froze. All of a sudden Jenny was feeling a lot guiltier for what she had done. No one deserved to be put into that situation, so she tried to save him, "Does it really matter how many times?"

"Yes it does, but that wasn't the question, what am I missing out on here, I feel that I am missing out on something."

"I thought these things were supposed to be about how the patient feels?"

"No distractions, what are you trying to distract me from? Why are you making such a big deal over the fact that you've been married three times? Many people have been married twice that amount."

"Because I've been married four times."

"But you just said...."

"I know."

"So you lied...?"

"No."

"But then.... you're married."

"Nope."

"Am I missing something? You were married four times and divorced three, but... oh." Anita realized what was going on. "Tell me about her."

Gibbs didn't move. He wasn't going to say this. There wasn't enough bourbon in the world. "Gibbs...." Anita looked at him, now actual concern on her face.

"They died, it's behind me, end of story."

"They?"

Gibbs made to stand, but Jenny took his hand and pulled him back. "His daughter, too." A shocked look crossed the faces of the therapists. They were both at a loss for words.

Finally Ralph cleared his throat. "I would say I'm sorry, but that doesn't seem to cut it."

"Don't apologize, it's a sign of weakness." Gibbs said, still trying to convince them he was over it.

"Gibbs, you need to talk about it." Anita said slowly, not really sure yet how to handle the situation. "Let's start with her name."

"Her name was...." Jenny started for him.

"No, no, no." Anita stopped her quickly. "He needs to do this. Her name?"

"Shannon." He stated quietly.

"And your daughter?"

"Kelly."

"What happened."

"They died."

"How?"

"Car crash."

"Was it a drunk driver?"

"Shooting."

"Oh my. Maybe you better start at the beginning of this one."

At this Jenny drew the line. "Please, if you want the whole story, let me? Please?"

Anita pursed her lips. She wanted Gibbs to be the one to say this, to get it out of his system, but she also knew she wasn't going to get very far with him and she wanted to know what happened, so she complied, and with that Jenny went on to explain what had happened. By the end of the story, Gibbs had his hand rested against his mouth and he was staring off into space. It was obvious he wasn't completely with them.

"Gibbs, you need to talk about it." Anita told him.

He snapped up out of his trance, "I don't need to do anything. I'm fine." He truthfully assured everyone in the room. He didn't _need_ to do anything. He was fine dealing with this on his own, and even if he _should_, he didn't _want_ to. People should relearn semantics.

Although Anita wanted more, she could tell this was going to go nowhere, so she changed the subject back to the main topic, wives, "Does this effect your work at all? Personally or professionally."

"No."

"So the fact that you've been divorced three times and 'made love' to your boss doesn't effect your work."

"Not at all."

"You've put it all behind you?"

"Yup."

"Well, it seems that we are running out of time, so we're gonna end things on a lighter note, and make sure there are no hard feelings about anything said, so, just as a precaution, let's see a hug."

Gibbs and Jenny looked awkwardly at each other before carefully hugging one another for a little longer then necessary.

They were about to stand up and leave when Ralph stopped them and looked at Gibbs, "Just one last question. It pertains to our discussion yesterday and part of our discussion today, and I'm merely curious.... When did you come up with rule twelve? Before or after Paris."

Gibbs stood up and walked towards the door smirking, Jenny following. He didn't turn around, but just before he walked out, he called back "After." And with that the door closed to the sound of Jenny's convivial laughter.

**OKAY, I HAVE THE FEELING THERE MIGHT BE A REASON SOME OF YOU MIGHT BE ANNOYED WITH THE WAY I WROTE PART OF THIS, BUT I DID IT ALL FOR A REASON, SO IF ANYONE HAS A PROBLEM, JUST TELL ME AND I'LL EXPLAIN. THEN AGAIN I MAY BE WRONG. I PROMISE IT WON'T TAKE ME A MONTH TO UPDATE AGAIN... MAYBE A WEEK THIS TIME. :)**

**SO YOU KNOW THE DRILL: REVIEW :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**HEY Y'ALL, MES AMIGOS, MES AMOURS**, **IL MIO PIU 'FEDELI RECENSORI. (THAT WAS ENGLISH, SPANISH, FRENCH AND ITALIAN, GOTTA LOVE GOOGLE TRANSLATE) HEHEHE. SO I KNOW, I'M A TERRIBLE PERSON. I TOLD YOU I'D UPDATE SOON, THEN MADE YOU WAIT. I ACTULLY HAD MOST OF IT WRITTEN ABOUT TWO WEEKS AGO, BUT THEN I JUST HAD A SPELL IN WHICH I STOPPED WRITING :( SO EVERYONE SHOULD THANK DIZZY - IN - THE - IZZY FOR GETTING ON ME ABOUT FINISHING THIS CHAPTER, BECAUSE IF IT WASN'T FOR HER THIS PROBABLY WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN UP FOR ANOTHER WEEK OR TWO. THANKS FOR ALL THE AMAZING REVIEWS, I HOPE, NO, I KNOW, YOU'LL LOVE THIS CHAPTER JUST AS MUCH IF NOT MORE :) OH, AND THANK VIKTORIJA SO MUCH FOR GOING AND REVIEWING ****ALL**** MY CHAPTERS. IT MADE ME FEEL SO GOOD TO SEE THAT MANY REVIEWS. HAPPY READING!**

**McAbby**

After they left the room and were out of sight from the therapists, Gibbs mumbled something about coffee and walked off. Although she would never admit it, after all they had just discussed, Jenny was hurt that Gibbs hadn't stayed with her on the walk back. Besides, now she would have to face the rest of the team alone. She sighed and walked slowly back to the cabins resolved to the fact that that was just Gibbs, and there was nothing that she, or anyone else, could do about it.

When she entered the cabin she pretended to ignore the fact that there were three pairs of curious eyes watching her every move. She knew they were all hoping for her to launch into an hour long detailed recap of what had been discussed in the session, but doubted they actually expected her to; so instead she merely nodded to McGee and Abby, letting them know it was their turn to be anatomized.

As they walked out of the room she noticed Tony wasn't present and she was now alone with Ziva. There was a few awkward moments before Ziva finally asked the question she would probably be asked three other times that day, "How did it go?" Which Jenny knew was code for "What did you talk about?"

So she replied with "As expected." Which they both knew meant "None of your business". "Where's Tony?"

"Well, unless he escaped through the window and is running naked around the camp, he is still showering." She replied, gesturing to the pile of clothes on the bed.

Trying not to imagine all the reasons for which Tony would leave his clothes outside the bathroom with Ziva, she replied with a simple, "Ah."

They heard the water turn off, and some movement in the bathroom, before Tony shouted, "Hey Ziva, bring me my clothes, would ya?" Ziva's eyes widened at what Tony was implying. She threw them so they landed outside the door.

"They are just outside the door, get them yourself." She shouted back.

Jenny smiled slightly at the blush blooming on Ziva's cheeks.

--------------------

Bubbles were practically radiating off of Abby as she skipped down the path linked arm in arm with her therapy buddy. "McGee! Oh my gosh, this is super exciting! I've never been to a therapy session with you before. Well, I guess, I have, twice, for the last two days, but that wasn't just you, so it doesn't really count."

"Abby."

"This is going to be a new 'first' for me! I always thought you stopped having those after your 'first day of kindergarten', but I guess not. Wow, I'm excited. What do you think we'll talk about?"

"Abby?"

"Do you think It'll get awkward? No probably not. There's nothing really awkward for me to say about myself. Well, except for the crazy ex-boyfriends, and the fact that one time my lab assistant tried to kill me, Oh! And that one time I had that creepy stalker following me around."

"Abby!?"

"He tried to kill me too, so I guess there is stuff, but I don't know why anyone would bring that up, I mean, it's not super important or anything, or relevant to...."

"ABBY!" McGee finally interrupted. "Please stop. You're rambling."

"Oh, right, sorry, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, won't we."

Unlike their predecessors, they had to wait outside the room to be let in for their therapy session as Anita and Ralph were going over their notes from Jenny and Gibbs' session.

While waiting outside the room, Abby was fidgeting while sitting on a bench while McGee kept glancing at her, her squirming making him more nervous than he already was. When she began tapping her foot, he lost it, "Abby, please stop!" He said mildly more demanding then what was really necessary. "I'm nervous enough about this as it is." Unlucky for him, at that moment, the shrinks stepped out into the hallway to usher them into the room.

"Hmmm... interesting." Ralph said smiling, glad they were practically given a introductory discussion topic.

McGee hung his head in embarrassment as they walked into the therapy room.

"So, let's get right to it." Ralph said with a smile on his face. He could already tell this would be an easier pair to get to talk than the last. "McGee, let's start with your most recent revelation: What makes you so nervous about coming in and having a conversation with us?"

Poor McGee had a deer in headlights/ pitiful puppy dog/ I would rather be anywhere but here right now expression on his face as he quickly tried to think of a suitable answer that would get them of his tail for the moment. Eventually he came up with an awkward, "Abby is making me nervous," which did not exactly get the amused expressions to leaves the faces of the now curious, captivated therapists.

"And how exactly is it that Abby makes you nervous?"

McGee tried to cover for himself, "I'm not actually... nervous. Just anxious. You know, to get this over with."

"And why is it that you want to get this over with?"

"Well, sorry, but this isn't exactly the way I was expecting to spend my weekend."

"And how were you going to spend it?"

"Is that really relevant?"

"Yes, it is. Now answer the question, please."

When he paused to answer, Abby took the liberty of answering for him, "He's trying to finish the sequel to Deep Six."

"Ah yes." Anita said with pleasure, "Your book, Mr. Gemcity. Let us delve into the covert meaning behind the elevated diction, facetious, ingenious characters and unorthodox ways of the team of a L.J. Tibbs." She said, ending with a smirk on her face.

"That book is completely original!" McGee defended, "Why doesn't anyone ever read the disclaimer at the front?"

"So our good friends the roguishly charming playboy Special Agent _Tommy_, and the sexy, smart Mossad officer _Lisa_ are NOT Tony and Ziva, right? And Abby is not Amy and you are not McGregor, am I correct?"

"Okay, so maybe I loosely came up with the basic identities for my characters from the team, but it's no big deal!" He said exasperatedly.

"You seem mildly annoyed." Ralph observed amusedly, "Do you get... bothered about this a lot."

"Oh yeah!" Abby said, a little too excitedly, "Tony teases him about it all the time."

"That irks me." Anita said, causing Abby to erupt in a fit of giggles. "What?" Anita asked disgruntled.

"Well, come on, who says irked?"

"Abby you say hinky." McGee pointed out.

"Yeah, but irked?"

"Abby, loads of people say irked."

"Yeah, you just said it like.... three times."

"See, my point exactly."

"Timmy, there is so much wrong with that."

"Hey!" Anita said loudly. "If I knew it would cause this much controversy I would have worded my comment differently. McGee," she said, returning to the original topic of conversation, "how would you describe your relationship with Tony? It seems that there is a lot of unnecessary tension there that shouldn't be between two people who work together."

McGee looked mildly awkward at the direction in which this conversation was going, "Well, lots of people fight who shouldn't."

"Such as?"

"Friends, brothers..." He started, not yet understanding the relevance of the question.

"So, you see Tony as a friend or brother?"

McGee's eyes widened slightly at the question. He put up with Tony all the time, and no matter how much he annoyed him or teased him, he never really lost any respect for him... "Yeah." He replied, confident in his answer. "Yeah I do."

At this new revelation Anita and Ralph smiled slightly, happy that they learned something new about their assumptions. It wasn't just them who saw the family like bond between the members, the team saw it as well.

But, instead of pressing the matter, they decided they would let it go for now and possibly find something more in the next group session... or in the session with Tony and Ziva; so, they directed the conversation back to McGee's book. "So," they started up again, "Do the characters in your book contain any of the same characteristics or thoughts or feelings as the people they represent in real life?"

"No, of course not." McGee lied obviously.

"Really, cause I would say the look on your face answered the question better than the words coming out of your mouth."

"Ask a more specific question," volunteered Abby.

"Well, thank you. Okay, how about the relationships between your characters. Were you possibly inspired by your observations of the team? Or maybe by the way your feel about the team?"

"Like?" Abby pressed.

Anita smirked at her, clearly amused with how much the goth was getting into the session. "Like the relationship between Tommy and Lisa, or the alleged relationship between McGregor and Amy."

"No, of course not." McGee lied again.

"McGee if you don't tell the truth in these sessions, we aren't going to make any progress."

"Okay, so maybe I noticed some... interactions around the office, and there might be a small chance, a few of the ideas were _accidentally _brought to the front of my mind while I was writing. It's a total coincidence.And I probably way over exaggerated some of what was said. Or done."

"Except for Tony and Ziva. If their interactions were exaggerated even a little bit they would be married."

"Really."

"Yeah, I think if it wasn't for the Silver Haired Fox and his stupid rules, they would be together already."

"_Really."_

"Just drop it Abby," McGee complained, then turned to the therapists, "She's obsessed with their 'relationship'."

"Well that is all very interesting, but it does bring up a new topic that very much so needs to be discussed." The therapists smirked at the groan that escaped McGee's lips, but ignored it. "Now, I've been hearing about this rule twelve recently. What do you have to say on the subject?"

"Oh, I hate it." Abby piped up.

"Really? Why is that... are you two...."

"What? Me and Timmy? No, I'm talking about Tony and Ziva."

"Tony and Ziva?"

"Well, yeah. You mean you've been in a room with them for longer than three seconds and you can't feel they're dynamic?!" Her questioning of their skills remotely irked the shrinks, until she reiterated her comment, "Not that I'm saying you didn't notice, or that you normally wouldn't notice, only that it's really hard to look at the two of them and not see it... or maybe it's just me, and I know them well enough to know they totally love each other."

By this point everyone was staring at her with amusement. "You seem very confident in your assessment of them."

"So you mean you didn't see it, it is just me?"

"No, I didn't say that."

"So you agree with me."

"I'm not saying that either."

"Wait, so do you or do you not think they are going to break rule twelve?"

"Do you want them to break rule twelve?"

"Of course. They're made for each other."

"You seem very certain of that."

"I am."

"And you think that they will eventually break the rule?"

"Well of course they will. Besides, every rule has an exception... but then again if the fact that every rule has an exception is a rule, then the rule that every rule as an exception has an exception, meaning there is a rule that doesn't have an exception, which is a contradiction to the fact that every rule has an exception.... if that made any sense."

"Okay, now I think you're just trying to distract us. What about you two? Do you think maybe, Abby, that you are using your... obsession with Tony and Ziva as a scapegoat for your relationship with McGee?"

"First of all it's not an obsession, just an interest in my friends' well being. I only want what's best for them, and what's best for them is each other...."

"Isn't that a bit presumptuous?" Ralph cut her off.

"Nope. It's just observant." Anita sighed deeply. She obviously need a more direct approach with this one.

"Abby, I think you should lay off your friends a bit."

This miraculously shut Abby up for a second, "What?"

"Abby, just because you think something is best for someone, that doesn't mean it is best for them. You should let them make their own decisions. EVEN," she said loudly when Abby tried to cut her off, "if it means what you want to happen doesn't happen."

"But, but," Stammered Abby, "It isn't _just_ what I want to happen, it's what _needs_ to happen. When two people love each other, and they are too stubborn to see it, it should be up to the people who care about them to make them admit it."

"And you're not worried at all that there'll be negative consequences for your actions?"

"They'll thank me later."

"And what if you're wrong."

At this Abby scoffed, and turned to McGee, "Timmy, when was the last time I was wrong about something?"

"Ummm.... I, uh, I honestly can't remember." He said,

"Abby, it doesn't matter, really, how right you are. It's their life, and you should stay out of the personal aspects."

"Maybe you're right..." Abby agreed without really agreeing.

At that moment Anita noticed the time, "Well, it looks like our time here is up. But before we go, there is something we need to have you do. As an assurance that no negative feelings, we would like to see a group hug." The response to this little comment surprised Anita and Ralph. Abby practically launched herself at McGee, engulfing him in a big Abby bear hug.

And as they exited the room, Anita and Ralph couldn't help but realize how Abby hooked herself to McGee's arm; and, they wished they had gone into more detail about the relationship between the two, and about what they really thought about themselves and the team. It was at this that they realized, considering how much had been discussed over the past hour, not that much had actually been said,

**UGG. I'M NOT SUPER HAPPY ABOUT HOW PARTS OF THIS CHAPTER TURNED OUT, BUVERY HAPPY WITH OTHER PARTS. SO TELL ME WHAT YOU DID AND DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT IT. I CAN'T GET BETTER WITHOUT CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. :) THIS IS ME THANKING YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEW I'M GOING TO GET. *HINT* *HINT* OH, AND DO YOU GUYS WANT TONY AND ZIVA TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP, OR TO HIDE IT? (FROM THE THERAPISTS) I'M STILL UNDECIDED. FEEDBACK IS APPRECIATED. :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**This is a short author note for a short chapter. :( something is wrong with my computer, and it isn't letting me update all 11 pages, so I just gave you the first four, and am putting the rest up tomorrow, if my computer stops being retarded.**

**TIVA (sort of)**

No matter how hard she tried, Ziva couldn't seem to ignore the fact that Tony was staring at her. She was laying down pretending to read (although thoroughly distracted), while Tony was sitting on the end of the bed trying to steal her attention.

"Zeeeeeeeeee-vah." He whined, dragging her name out longer than usual, "Ziva, let's go outside, there's nothing to do in here, I'm bored. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on! Come on Ziva, that book can't be _that_ interesting." Although he got no visible response, it took all of Ziva's will power not to react. She wanted to do nothing more then push him off the bed, but before she could think of all the painful things she could do to him, her mind went to the gutter and she began to think of all the... _other_ things she could do to him on the ground. She shook her head at herself, slightly ashamed of the way she was thinking about Tony, who, at that moment, perked up a little at the slight movement of her cranium. "Ziva, Ziva, Zeeeeee-vah. You know you want to, come one, let's go." He said, grabbing her leg and trying to pull her off the bed.

"You know, nothing is stopping you from going outside by yourself, Tony." Jenny said from the other side of the room, amused by Tony's puppy dog tendencies.

"Umm..." he thought, letting go of her leg and trying to come up with a valid excuse as to why he wanted Ziva to come with him, especially since less than an hour ago he had been trying to come up with an excuse for why he was offering Ziva the chance to bring his clothes to him in the shower, "Well... what if..... what if there are... what if there are bears out there? I hear there are a _lot_ of bears, and I'm sure Ziva doesn't want her beloved partner to go out there all by himself and get eaten by one of those savages."

"Tony, I do not understand," Ziva teased smirking, "Are you trying to get me to come with you, or throw you out covered in honey."

"Haha. Zee-vah, very funny. I know you would never throw me to the dogs."

"I thought we were talking about bears." She said, scrunching her eyebrows together in a way that Tony couldn't help but think was cute.

_Ugg_, he thought to himself, _I do _not_ want to be one of those guys who goes around thinking everything his girlfriend does is "cute", I think I'd make myself puke...if she didn't kill me first. "_It's just an expression, Zee-vah." But Ziva was yet again ignoring him, and had gone back to "trying" to read. "Are you going to come with me or not?" Tony asked one last time, still getting no response from his partner. "Fine, then, I guess you leave me no choice." He said, reaching out and snatching the book out of her unprepared hands for the second time.

"Tony!" she shouted in frustration. "Give that back."

"No, you weren't reading it anyway."

"What makes you say that?" Ziva asked, annoyed that she had been caught.

"You have been on the same page for the last ten minutes. Even I don't read that slow."

"I wasn't aware of the fact that you read at all."

"I love reading."

"Porn."

"And there you go. You just admitted I love reading."

"You disgust me."

"Ah, you know you love me." They both froze for a split second, thrown off by his choice of words, which were now not quite as innocent as they would have been the day before.

Ziva, recovering quickly, broke the awkward moment by reaching for the book Tony was still holding. "Give that back."

Tony, snapping out of it just as quickly, pulled his hand away and ran toward the door of the cabin, "Come and get it." he goaded.

"DiNozzo!" Ziva scolded, trying to decide if it was even worth her effort. Tony reached for the handle of the door only for it to slam open into his face.

"Tony!" Ziva shouted, hurrying over to him, worried. "Are you okay?"

"Oh my gosh, Tony I am so sorry." McGee spluttered, now entering the room. "I didn't know you were there, I swear."

Tony was sitting on the floor, one hand over his nose, the other grasping tightly onto Ziva's. "Probie!" he shouted, not really sure what he was going to say, just needing someone to yell at and distract himself from the pain searing in his nose.

"What? What can I do? I'm so sorry. I swear I didn't mean to."

"Eah, MiJerf, ub awedy aid at. Ut it odn't ange de dact dat ub boke by nobe." He said, glaring up at his junior agent.

Ziva quickly diffused the situation; she stood up and walked over to McGee, placing a hand on his arm, "I'm sure Tony will be okay."

"Ohay!?" Tony said over exaggerating the situation, "Ib dyin ober ere."

"Tony you are not dying." Ziva said, glaring at him down on the ground, the turning back to McGee, "Can you please go get a nurse or someone to come look at Tony's nose."

McGee looked down at Tony's bloody face, "Yeah, sure, of course." He replied quickly running out of the room to find help.

Half an hour later Tony's face was cleared up of the dried blood and he had a small piece of white medical tape over the bridge of his nose.

"Well, Mr. DiNozzo," the nurse said, causing Tony to grumble at the title, "it seems I was able to set your nose straight without any major problems. You can go back to doing whatever you were doing."

"Ugg. I doubt it. It hurts like crazy." Tony complained.

"Haha, don't worry, the painkillers should start to kick in pretty soon." The room went silent, as five heads turned slowly to look at the nurse, who was now look mildly nervous. "What?" She asked, "What did I do?"

"You gave him painkillers?!" Ziva asked in a dangerously quiet voice.

"Well, yes," the nurse replied confused, "He would be in an immense amount of pain for the rest of the day if I didn't."

Ziva groaned, "No, Gibbs! Don't make me go to this session with him. He is going to be completely insufferable."

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me, DiNozzo, David, get moving, you're already half an hour late to your meeting." Gibbs said, while Ziva looked at him pleadingly, already worried about what Tony would say and do. "Now!"

Ziva huffed and stood up and grabbed onto the collar of Tony's shirt dragging him along with her, "Come on, let's just get this over with."

"Oh, right. Now you'll go out with me." Tony said, the painkillers starting to kick in.

**I'm really sorry I have to cut it off here. :( I swear I'm done with the chapter, and I'll try my very best to get the resy up tomorrow. Thanks for your patience. (OH, and for those of you who watch the show, BONES is on tonight. :) yay!!)**


	19. Chapter 19

**Okay, I'm really really really really sorry. My computer is still in a bad mood, so I have to post a small amount, yet again. So I guess I'm going to have to keep doing this until my computer is feeling better. This part of the chapter took me forever to write. I actually would have had this whole chapter up a few weeks ago, but I couldn't word this part right; I'm still not entirely happy with it. So I gave up for a few days, went to Little Italy (a small portion of San Diego) and suddenly got inspired while on a sugar high. :D Gotta love sweet sweet carbs. So this chapter is dedicated to sugar cane. **

**Tiva (sort of)**

Anita and Ralph looked up from some paperwork as Ziva and Tony rushed hurridly through the door. "You two better have a good reason for being late." Anita repremended, until seeing the tape on Tony's nose, "Oh, well, what happened here?"

"McCareless slammed a door in my face."

"McCareless?"

"Yeah, you know, Probie, McGeek, McNerd, Elf Lord. The list goes on."

"Ah. I see, you mean McGee.... he slammed a door in your face."

"Yeah. I was just getting ready to head over, being the good little DiNozzo that I am, when BAM, a door is being slammed in my face. I just can't understand what came over the little probie. How could he do this to me?"

"He did this on purpose?"

"NO." Ziva said quickly, before Tony could say anything ludicrous, "It was an accident. I'm sorry, they put him on pain killer... if he starts acting a little..." she trailed off.

"Ah, yes. I completely understand. We don't get many injuries around here, but when we do we tend to see the illeffects of the painkillers. Well, I'm sure we can work through that... besides, it will be interesting to see how it effects his behavior."

Tony gave the therapists a goofy grin, "Yeah, well, you should see how Ziva effects my behavior."

Ziva looked confusedly over at him, "Tony, that didn't even make sense."

"It did the way I was thinking about it."

Ziva gave the shrinks a befuddled expression as they tried not to laugh, "Well, I guess that brings us to an interesting topic for discussion, Ziva, what is the nature of your relationship with Tony?"

Ziva's eyes shot open, until she realized relationships took many forms, and she was probably over reacting, "We are partners..." she started before Anita interrupted her.

"No, no, no. We already knew that. I meant outside of work."

"We are friends." She said slowly.

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Well..."

"You know it is really annoying when people do that."

"Do what?"

"Beat around the shrub."

Tony turned, grinning, to Ziva, "It's bush, Zee-vah. People beat around bushes, not shrubs."

"Whatever," she dismissed, "What I mean is, why don't people just say or ask what they mean. It is much simpler and avoids confusion."

"Okay, so if I ask a direct question, you will promise to answer it truthfully?"

"Yes." Ziva said at the same time Tony said, "Why not."

"Tony, what do you feel about Ziva?"

"I have I question." He said, avoiding _her_ question.

"Does it pertain to the question."

"Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"It pertains to the session."

"I don't think..."

"What are we going to do with the half hour we missed at the beginning?"

Anita rolled her eyes, "I'm adding the time on to the end. You'll just have to be late for lunch."

"What! But I already missed breakfast!"

"Why?"

"Ziva didn't want to go."

"Why did that stop you from going?"

"Me and Ziva do everything together." At a sudden thought he grinned wolfishly at Ziva. "And I mean _everything_."

Much to Tony's disappointment, Ziva ignored his innuendo. Ralph, on the other hand, refused to let it slide, "Tony why do you keep doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Trying to make your partner uncomfortable."

"I'm not trying to get her uncomfortable, I'm trying to get her to blush."

At this, Anita and Ralph smirked at each other, "Why?"

"I like making her blush," he said, reaching out to touch her cheeks, only to have her hit his hand away and glare at how obvious he was being.

"Tony stop it."

He only grinned at her and put his arm around her shoulders, not letting go, even when she attempted to push his arm away, giving up when he only tightened his grip.

"Okay, I really want to know what is going on here." Anita said, annoyed by the fact that they were trying to act like nothing was going on, but acting so obvious about it.

"Nothing is going on." Ziva said exasperatedly, now physically shoving Tony off of her and scooting away from Tony slightly, "It's only the painkillers."

Tony put a hurt look on his face, which was only partially faking, "Ziva." He said sadly.

"What! Stop doing that!"

"You didn't seem to mind earlier when I..."

"TONY!" Ziva shouted at him, now furious at him for getting hurt, even if it wasn't really his fault.

Tony turned his head to the side and frowned slightly at her, "I was sure that was going to get you to blush."

Ziva groaned in frustration and made a move that looked as if she was considering killing him, or at least seriously injuring him, until she thought better of it and just clenched her fists.

Anita looked worriedly at the murderous expression on Ziva's face and decided to change the subject, "Well, assuming I believe your whole "painkillers" excuse, there is something else I'm curious about; I really want to know more about this whole deal with Mossad, Ziva, so let's start at the beginning: what got you into Mossad? Was it a person? An experience? Tell me about your childhood."

**Well, I had to cut this off within four pages (because of my retarded computer) and this seemed a good a place to stop as any. Again, Thank you all for the patience. I'm so sorry.**


	20. Chapter 20

_AN: No, I'm not dead. Just injured. But you should all be happy I'm injured, because I've been benched for the last week in soccer, so I had time to write. Yeah, the last week of soccer and I threw out my knee. I'm kinda depressed because I didn't get to play the last game of my senior year, but luckily it's nothing too serious (I was so worried I had torn my ACL) so I just have to stretch really well and it should get better._

_Okay, I need to explain myself, because I've been doing the worst job on updating. So soccer started four months ago, which is why I haven't been updating, and now track is starting, and, knee permitting, I want to do that. That's why my story is at a sort of stand still right now. I promise I'm not giving up on it. Make sure you read my AN at the end, and I will see what you guys want me to do with it, updates wise._

_Disclaimer: I'm not that rich._

Ziva glanced nervously at Tony. Talk about mossad? Her childhood? Her life? No, she couldn't do that. Everything that was the past was behind her, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Tony saw a worried look on Ziva's face as she caught his eye for a split second. The lazy grin that had etched itself onto his face when he heard that he may be one of the few people lucky enough to hear even a little bit about Ziva's past slipped a few notches. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"Umm..." He started, not sure what to say or do to stop this. His brain was still a little fuzzy from painkillers.

Noticing Tony was trying to stand up for his partner, Anita quickly tried reassuring Ziva, "Ziva, you are in a safe place here. It's okay to open up."

Ziva looked down at her hands and twiddled her thumbs, trying to think of a good scapegoat to get out of this conversation. Nothing. Any valid topics of conversation were evading her conscience mind... well, except one, but she wasn't about to blurt out she was in love with Tony just to get out of talking about what she did as a child.

"Well," Ziva started, "I am not going to pretend it wasn't difficult growing up with your father as the deputy director of Mossad, but it wasn't as different as you'd think. I still went to school, had friends-"

"My ninja had friends?!" Tony interrupted teasingly.

"You find that surprising?" She asked, looking at him in a way that made him want to run for his life, and turned him on a little simultaneously.

"I'm just a little surprised all the other kids weren't scared of you."

"Don't judge other people just because _you_ are scared of me, Tony."

"I'm not-"

"Ha! Sure you are not," Ziva said, the entire time her eyes not leaving Tony's.

Pretending like she didn't see the intense look that passed between the partners, Anita decided to continue the questioning, "What about the whole 'you're in Mossad' thing? How does that fit into your childhood?"

Still lost in Tony's eyes barely recognized the question, "I am sorry, what did you say?"

"You're in Mossad," she smirked, "How did that fit into your childhood?"

"It did not. In Israel, everyone has to grow up fast. All my training did was give me the power to keep myself safe instead of counting on others to do it for me."

"Is there anything you regret about that?"

Ziva furrowed her eyebrows and thought carefully before answering, "No, there is nothing that I can think of."

"Does your history ever affect your partnership with Tony?"

Ziva glanced over at Tony as she answered, "No.... Not that I know of." No matter how he acted, or how long they had been working together, Ziva could never be entirely sure about what Tony really thought, at least about serious matters. She knew him well enough to know most of his jokes were just a clever facade to conceal what he was really thinking, and he really was quite good at it.

Tony noticed Ziva looking at him, and began to feel nervous under the intense gaze, "Nope," he said, trying his best to ignore her, "no problems whatsoever, if she did go through all that as a kid, today she wouldn't be the ninja we know and love."

No matter the slightly uncomfortable look on his face, Ziva could tell the sincerity behind his words, and almost blushed. Noticing this, Tony's eyes lit up and he stared at her for a few seconds, hoping to see her give in and allow the blood to rush to her cheeks, but was disappointed.

Then, noticing the time, his eyes lit up, yet again, "So," he said, "it's been like, an hour, can we go now?"

"Yes, I suppose it is about time to leave." Anita said sadly, not wanting to let her favorite pair walk out the door.

"Sweet!" Tony said excitedly, jumping up and all but running for the door, "Come on Sweetcheeks, let's go see if there's still anything to eat. I'm starving."

"Wait!!" Ralph called after them, causing Tony to groan, just as Ziva caught up to him at the door, "There's one more thing before you go. At the end of these session, we would like to see you two hug, to assure there are no negative emotions that leave this room."

Tony scoffed for a moment, until he narrowed his eyes mischievously on a sudden inspiration, grabbed Ziva's hand, and pulled her to him kissing her full on the mouth, after which he winked at the shocked therapists and walked cheerfully out of the room, leaving an even more shocked Ziva standing in the doorway, her cheeks a deep red.

_A/N: Okay, now, you have a couple choices:_

_ 1. I just "forget" about the story until summer, when I'll continue writing like nothing happened._

_ 2. I do what I did with this one, where I wrote half of it like four months _

_ ago, then had time to finish, so I came back and wrote the rest, and left me unsure as to how much it makes sense._

3. _I update a really short chapter every week or two. I promise I'll update, but I also promise the chapter will be really really short, like shorter that this one._

_I like option three the best, besides if I do that, I'll probably go even more off my originally planned plot line than I already have, in which case the story will get continuously more random, which is why I haven't been doing that already. But if you don't mind that, then I guess it's okay. Just tell me what you think, or if you have any other ideas, that would be great, too. Thanks. And if you're still reading, review please._


	21. Chapter 21

_**For those of you who don't know, I live in Southern California, San Diego to be more exact. Over a year ago, a fourteen year old girl, Amber DuBois, went missing, last seen at Escondido High School. Her body was just found. About a weeks ago, the body of another girl, Chelsea King was found in Poway. Right now authorities are trying to link the two deaths, but there's nothing certain about it. I didn't personally know either of the girls, but I know someone who knew people who knew Amber, and it's really really sad. So this chapter is in loving memory of both of them, may they rest in peace.**_

Gibbs could have heard them from a mile away. He was sitting at a table in the cafeteria with McGee, Abby, and, of course, Jenny, when he recognized their familiar bickering from across the room.

"Tony, I swear, if you ever try to pull something like that again, I will kill you slowly and very very painfully."

"Come on Zee-vah," he whined, "it was all in good fun. Besides, they took your weapons away when you came here. What are you going to kill me with?"

Ziva spun around to face Tony, a murderous look in her eye, "Pick a pine-cone Tony, any pine-cone." Ziva's shock at the unexpected kiss had quickly resolved into anger. How could he be so stupid?

"You can kill someone with a pine-cone?" Tony asked, hoping she wasn't actually planning on hurting him, but still, mildly impressed, "You'll have to show me how to do that sometime."

"I have never actually attempted it, but I would be more than happy to use you for experimentation. This way, you can learn first hand." Ziva shot back, sitting down hard next to Abby at the table, causing the forensic scientist to shrink back slightly.

"What'd DiNozzo do this time?" Gibbs asked, feeling bad for Ziva for whatever Tony had done to get her so mad at him.

Ziva glared over at Tony as he sat down, "Nothing," she said shortly, "Besides, it was just the pain killers, otherwise he would not have done something so moronic."

"It wasn't even that bad." Tony said, now sulking in his seat and muttering something that sounded a little bit like "completely harmless".

Upon hearing this, Ziva blew up again, "How was... that, completely harmless?! Now the... they will...!" She huffed loudly, having trouble yelling at Tony without directly saying he had kissed her and blowing their secret. "You are completely insufferable. I am going for a run." And with that, she stood up, and walked out, leaving Tony staring helplessly after her, debating on wether or not he should follow. His survival instincts kicked in and he decided to stay put.

"Oh come one Ziva!" he said shouting after her, "It was just a little fun!" He fell back into his seat, pouting with his head in his hands, "I really don't understand her sometimes," he said, looking up at his fellow teammates who were, by this point, staring at him and waiting for an explanation, along with everyone sitting at the tables around them. There was a moment of awkward silence, before Tony finally asked what everyone was thinking, "What?"

"I dunno DiNozzo," Gibbs asked, annoyed by the scene Tony had made, "What?"

Tony looked at his hands shaking his head, "Nothing."

"That's what Ziva said, too."

"It's not even that big a deal."

"To you maybe."

Tony looked up at him and groaned, realized his boss was subtly ordering him to go talk to her, "Fine," he said, sounding like a four year old, then getting up from the table to find Ziva, frustrated that now he was missing lunch as well as breakfast.

Gibbs, Jenny, McGee and Abby all stared after him as he shuffled toward the door.

There was an awkward silence before McGee spoke, looking intently at the table in front of him, "Do you really think she could kill someone with a pine-cone?" he asked, obviously trying to imagine how such a simple object could be used as a lethal weapon.

* * *

After lunch, McGee and Abby hurried off together toward some unknown destination, leaving Jenny and Gibbs to walk alone together back to the cabins.

"What do you think that was about?" Jenny asked, trying to prevent any awkwardness between them.

All she got in response was a "Hmmm," an obvious sign of Gibbs' distraction.

"Okay then." Jenny said, put of by his mood.

"Did you say something?" Gibbs asked, brows furrowed, a look of deep concentration on his face. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

Jenny looked over at him in shock, "I was just wondering what has you so distracted you're apologizing."

Gibbs looked over at her, an internal debate raging in his eyes, before he spurt out, "Do you think we made any mistakes?"

"Huh?" Jenny asked, surprised by the turn in conversation, "What do you mean?"

"In Paris?"

"Oh." There was a moment of awkward silence before, "I don't regret anything if that's what your asking." She watched him for a minute trying to decipher what he was thinking before it clicked, "Tony and Ziva?" she asked, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice. He grunted in response. She grabbed his arm to stop him and forced him to look at her, "They'll be fine, Jethro."

"Relationships between coworkers never turns out well."

"Do you really think that?" she asked looking into his piercing blue eyes, "Because from what I remember, we were involved, and as far as I know, we turned out just fine."

Gibbs stared down at her for a second before turning away and continuing towards the cabins. He didn't completely approve of what was going on between Tony and Ziva, but as he thought over what Jenny had said, he could help but allow a small smile to creep onto his face. She was right, they would be just fine.

_I'm sorry if the ending is a little off. I just got into a fight with my parents and they broke my thought process. Anyway, hope you liked it. I'll try to get another chapter up soon._


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: Heh heh... Hi. Sorry. I'm a lazy procrastinator. You can all yell at me in your reviews. The beginning of this is a little... off, I guess, cause I wrote it at like midnight at some point and I'm too lazy to fix it... so yeah. Just to warn you. Now, on with the story.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned NCIS, I probably would have recently finished writing the first episode of season one. So lucky for you all, I don't.**

Tony sighed as he walked out of the building. He could feel the eyes of most of the people following him. He honestly hadn't meant to kiss Ziva in front of anyone. It was a spur of the moment decision and he wasn't thinking, and now, in retrospect, it really wasn't such a good idea. Now he only had to try to convince Ziva of that. "_It sucks that hindsight has 20/20 vision_," he thought to himself. As he wandered the paths hoping he would run into Ziva, he kicked a pine-cone and smiled to himself, wondering if Ziva would actually be mad enough try to kill him with one.

Tony looked up at the woods around him and took time to really appreciate the beauty of it all. All the trees were a deep green contrasting with the clear, blue sky. Tony deeply breathed in the cool, fresh air, causing his thoughts to drift back to his Israeli ninja. He couldn't keep making mistakes like he had been recently, like kissing her that first time in the woods without talking to her about it first, then again in the therapists office.

If he continued like this, it would ruin their relationship before it even began, and then they would never have the chance to share experiences like walking in woods like these together, and he would be stuck having to do these things alone... like he was now... alone. He let out a cry of frustration and kicked a tree. He was starting to think about things like a teenage girl would.

Yet, the more Tony thought about it, the more he realized something about the way he was thinking, he had limited his choices to two: be with Ziva, or be alone. He always new he cared about Ziva as more than a friend, yet now that he had had the chance to really show he how much he cared, he was beginning to realize himself just how much that was, and that was to the point that he didn't _want _to spend his life with anyone but her. Tony slowed to a stop and stood there processing this information, the frat-boy half of him telling him he was being stupid and over-reacting, and the other half of him, the half he usually ignored, telling him that what he was feeling was completely real.

Tony had never been more confused in his life. This confusion caused him to make a desperate decision that he knew he would probably regret, but it was a decision he had made and he was sticking to it. And with that, he turned around and walked down a semi-familiar path through semi-familiar doors and into a much too familiar office.

"Hey," he said to the woman sitting in the desk, "I need to talk."

Tony sat fidgeting in one of the chairs in the empty room. Anita had momentarily left to try to find her partner during his lunch break, but as the door creaked open to reveal only one person, Tony assumed the male therapist, like most males, was not to be interrupted during lunch.

"I couldn't find him," Anita said, "but I'm more than willing to do this with just the two of us, what seems to be the problem?"

"Uhh..." Tony said, unable to find words to express exactly what he was thinking.

Anita looked at him curiously for a moment before realizing what this was all about, "Is this about Ziva?"

Tony snapped his head up and looked at Anita with wide eyes, then sighed and let his head fall into his hands, "I dunno."

"You don't know? Can you give me a yes or a no?"

"Yes... no... maybe... I don't know,"

"Tony, if you want to talk about something specific, you'll at least have to let me know what it is."

"Yeah..." Tony sighed. "I know that if you're in love someone you're not supposed to hesitate about admitting it, but I really _think_ I do, I just don't want to admit it."

Anita tried to not look too startled by the "Have you talked with her about it?"

"Sort of... not really."

"Care you go into more detail?"

"No," he said reflexively, because he really didn't _want _to talk about anything, but he had come because he knew he had to, for his own good, so he let out his breath and started talking. "We talked about where our relationship stood a little, and we made out... a lot, but we really didn't go into depth about feelings. Neither of us is the kind of person who likes to do that."

Anita sat there for a second processing what he had told her. So there _was_ something between them. This had just become a lot more complicated... and a lot more interesting.

"You know," Anita started felling sort of bad for the confused man sitting in front of her, "These things usually work themselves out better if you actually talk them over with the person you are having trouble with."

"It's not Ziva I'm having trouble with, it's myself!"

"So this is... not so much about the feeling that you love her, but the fact that you love her?"

"Yeah... I guess. I've felt this way for a while I think... I don't know. I shouldn't have come here, I don't even really know what the problem is anyways." Tony stood up quickly and started making his way towards the exit.

"Tony can you wait for a second?" Anita called after him, causing him to stop slowly and wince before turning on his heels and looking at the therapist an obviously fake smile on his face.

"Yes?"

"Look, I know this is a complicated situation, but you and Ziva obviously care for each other on some level, so no matter what happens I believe it will all work out, but it will take some level of commitment. What I think you need to do is talk with her about how much each of you is willing to commit, and what boundaries need to be set, so that no one has unrealistic expectations and no one is surprised if one has more or less expectations than the other." Anita paused here looking at Tony with a small smile on her face contemplating something, "Just trust yourself, that you wont hurt her, because judging by the way you look at her you would go to the ends of the earth just to keep her from getting hurt." Anita sat for a second thinking if there was anything else she wanted to say. "Well, I guess that's all. You can go now."

Tony looked at her for a second thinking about what she said before smiling a more genuine smile and walking out the door, now with only one thing on his mind.

Back in the cafeteria chatter went back to normal a few seconds after Tony had walked out of the room. Gibbs turned back to his food and muttered something that sounded mildly like "Idiot" before taking another bite.

The rest of the meal was eaten in artificial silence, the only sounds being the chewing of food. Gibbs had such a foul look on his face that as soon as they had eaten enough that they could leave without being too conspicuous, McGee and Abby had gotten up and all but run out of the room, causing Gibbs to glare after their retreating forms.

"I'm glad we got out of there." McGee said, still keeping up a quick pace trying to put as much distance between them and an angry Gibbs as possible.

"I know, right?" Abby replied, almost walking faster than McGee, "I mean, I like Gibbs and all, and usually I'm totally fine around him, like, even when he's mad at something you did... and by you I mean, you or Ziva or Tony... probably Tony most of the time, I didn't just mean you personally, but that was pretty scary. He looked like he was getting ready to rip someone's head off."

McGee sighed, "I'm guessing he probably knows what Tony did to piss off Ziva. It must have been pretty bad."

"Yeah, I wish you would have asked him whats..." Abby froze with wide eyes. McGee stopped and looked at the place her eyes were frozen towards. Ziva was standing with her arms crossed, a murderous look in her eyes, which were focused on a timid looking Tony who was slowly walking towards her as if he were testing how close he could get before she attacked. Abby quickly pushed McGee behind a bush before jumping quickly behind a tree with a think trunk. They stared at each other with wide eyes as they listened to every word Tony and Ziva were saying.

**A/N: Yeah, like I said, I'm really sorry... about not updating a ton this summer like I promised... funny enough I have been writing, I just have this need to writing everything using a pencil and paper first... then I get too lazy to type. So I actually have a few chapters written. I'll try to get around to typing them soon.**

**Oh, and just so I can spend a few moments bragging, I graduated high school last May, and I'm moving from California AAALLLLLLLL the way to Pennsylvania so that I can attend Penn State this fall... Which makes me laugh a little because PSU is rivaled with OSU (where Tony went to school). Just so you all know.**

**Now here's the part where you all get the chance to yell at me. Review! :D**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Okay, well it took me longer to get this up than I though, but I'm assuming by this point you're all just expecting that... but if you haven't noticed I have been posting a bunch of stuff recently (like one shots from years ago) which can be explained by the fact that I have a six page lab report I don't want to write and three tests I don't want to study for. Yay procrastinating.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

After McGee and Abby hurried out of the building, Gibbs and Jenny were left alone at the table in complete silence. Gibbs knew he shouldn't be acting this way. If something was going on between his agents, it actually wasn't any of his business. Anything they did in their personal life wasn't supposed to be any of his business. Yet he was doing the exact thing he was angry at them about: caring.

He neither wanted to see Tony nor Ziva of them get hurt; nor McGee nor Abby for that matter, and based on the way McGee had been following Abby around like a lost puppy for the last few days, they might be a problem soon, too.

Gibbs knew Tony was pretty crazy about Ziva, but in the past Tony also seemed to be pretty crazy about every other girl he had fucked and dumped, and Gibbs wasn't even sure where Ziva stood, and that scared him more than anything. He was worried Ziva would agree to try things out with Tony, and then if they didn't work out, she would just leave. If she did that, and Tony was really into her, Gibbs wasn't entirely sure Tony would get over it.

But it wasn't any of his business, he had to keep telling himself. What they did on their time was their business. Besides, it's not like this was the first time someone would be breaking his rule. Abby had dated McGee for a while, and they were okay now, even though they hadn't worked out together and had broken up. Plus, if he would admit it to himself, he had broken that rule himself. As he thought this he glanced over at Jenny and caught her looking at him funny.

"What?" he asked a little more harsh than he had intended.

"I think you're going to hard on them Jethro, and yourself for that matter. We talked about this. No matter what happens, everything is going to turn out okay. You know they can get through anything together."

Gibbs sighed, "I know, I can't help but worry that something will go wrong."

"What is it exactly that you think will go wrong?"

Gibbs sighed again before turning to fully look at her, "What if they turn out like us?"

"What makes you think that is such a bad thing?"

This simple question makes him double take, "What?" he asks, still completely baffled at the idea.

"Jethro, why would it be so bad if they were like us? We didn't work out and we still work together. In fact, we are in almost the exact situation they are."

"And what situation might that be?" Gibbs asks, now completely intrigued by the idea she had all but forced into his brain. Having feelings for each other and working together? Cause that's what situation they are in. Did she have feelings for him? Was she remembering what happened all those years ago and wanting it back?

"Well, maybe not exactly." She started, effectively shutting the voice in Gibbs' head up, "I just mean being in such close proximity with each other all the time with so much left unsaid. We never talk about what happened and-"

"We could," Gibbs said with out thinking.

"We could what?"

"Never mind."

"This is what I mean. About not talking about things. If you have something to say you should just say it."

Gibbs sighed, "Are you sure they're going to be okay?"

"Yes. Positive. Whatever happens, they'll be able to work it out. Even if it doesn't work out in one way, they care about each other too much to completely shut the other out of their lives."

"Just like us, right?"

"Exactly."

* * *

"Zee-vah?" Tony started tentatively, suddenly very aware of the fact she was easily within reach of not one, but many pine cones.

"I don't want to talk to you right now." Ziva said coldly.

"Okay, I and completely understand why, but I need to say something."

Ziva stared at him first considering saying no and storming off, second hitting him as hard as she could, but she didn't really want to hurt him, and if she tried moving at all she knew she would probably end up hitting him. So she ended up standing there in silence, just glaring and hoping he got the point. He didn't.

"Okay, first of all I'm really really sorry."

"I don't want to stand here and listen to you apologize. Just say what you want so I can leave."

"I wasn't thinking straight and now that I am I know I shouldn't have done it, but I can't take it back. I was wrong, but I really really don't want you to be angry at me cause I like you a lot better when we're getting along. Can you please forgive me."

"I do not want to hear this right now," She said shortly before turning and starting to walk away.

"Zee-vah!" Tony shouted, chasing after her, "Please wait one second. Ugghhhh! ZIVA!"

Ziva suddenly stopped on the spot whipping her body around to face Tony, "No. Do you know what, you listen to me. You were stupid and careless and you are obviously willing to risk us for pulling one of your stupid immature jokes and if you are trying something like that after only a day, I don't want to know what it's going to be like in a week, or a month. So just forget it."

"What? No Ziva. That's... just, NO! Ziva." Tony stopped and just stood there limply looking deep into Ziva's eyes. "Will you please give me one minute to talk without interrupting? Please?" Only Ziva could leave him resorting to begging.

"Fine. One minute. Go."

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Abby asked frantically.

"No, did you?" McGee asked, by this point honestly curious about what was going down between his coworkers.

"Damn. Sorry. I couldn't hear anything after Ziva's little rant. What do you think she meant by 'us'?"

"I dunno. I'm still not completely sure what Tony did to make her so mad. Well, besides something stupid and careless and immature. But that doesn't narrow it down a whole lot, does it."

Abby sighed, now completely frustrated, "McGee, we have a new mission."

"Great," McGee said sarcastically.

"We have to figure out what's going on between them. What if they're together? That would be so great."

"Don't jump to conclusions now Abby."

"It's not that far of a jump. I can make it."

"Abby, I just mean, I don't want you to get your hopes up and then be disappointed."

"I know McGee, but I'm not. There's _something_ hinky going on here, and I am _going_ to figure out what it is."

**I liked the way it started, the rest of it I thought was a little iffy. Oh well. It's 10:00. Today I ate brunch, watched The Shining, wrote this, and did a lot of relaxing. Yet I have done absolutely nothing productive in terms of school work. Which of course means in general terms today was very productive.**

**I'd say I'll update soon... but I probably won't. :( Hopefully there are still people out there sticking with this story. If there are, Thank you! And reviews would be appreciated.**

**Oh, and HAPPY ! 3 3 3**


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